Without Words
by Zeh Wulf
Summary: (AU) A good deed goes awry when Kagome loses the shikon jewel while saving a drowning prince. But how can she get it back when he lives on land and she below the waves? (An adaptation of the original fairy tale)
1. Surfacing

 A/N:  Alright!  First chapter back and better than ever, thanks to my trusty new Betas, Caeria and Kat Morning.  Claire is also joining the ranks, but will be specializing in the RK fic fronts.  So enjoy their handiwork.  Things are a bit clearer and cleaner than before, so, while nothing huge has changed, you might want to take another read   Oh, and because this seems to be a big point of confusion: this is modeled off of the original fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson.  Look on my author's page for a link where you can read it online if you don't already have a copy… which I'm sure so many of you do cough  So, again, this is **not** based off of the **Disney** version of the story.

 **General Warnings:** If your only resource for Inu-Yasha is through the American dubs or the Viz released mangas, you might be unaware of the hanyou's foul mouth. 

Since my acquaintance is through an uncensored version of the script, he will be retaining that foulness. 

 **Disclaimer: **I do not own Inu-Yasha or Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid."  I just like mashing them together.

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 **Without Words: **Surfacing

            The sun, brooding upon the horizon of its death, threw angry streaks of red across the churning surface of the ocean.  Tonight, the moon would hide its face, leaving only pale starlight to glint off the foam of the waves and dimming the ocean depths to even darker currents.  Below, the predators, the demons who could hunt without sight, would prowl the borders of the mermaid kingdom.  Above, the Sirens would surface to sing their caressing lures and invite the ships and sailors to sink beneath the inky waves.  And once the hunt had lapsed from violence to something more primitive, the foam atop the waves would stain pink.

            Tonight, a venture from the haven of the kingdom was for those who sought release from their three hundred years of life. 

            Tonight marked Kagome's fifteenth year and her Surfacing. 

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            The mirror reflected a pale face starkly outlined by waving black hair.  Gray-blue eyes shone too large above fine cheekbones and a mouth thinned in displeasure.  Wealth clung to her in restrictive bands of pearl-beaded silver.  Delicate shells and pearls crowned her head, weaving through her dark hair, and dipped across her forehead.  A corset of pearls and silver hugged her waist just above where skin melted into silver-green scales.  Bangles cuffed her wrists and pale-shelled clams clung in a stately line up the back of her tail.  They numbered eight in all, a mark of high rank and respect to honor the kingdom's youngest princess.

            "Kagome, are you done yet?" 

            She shifted her eyes up to find the reflection of her elder sister's face hovering at her shoulder.   

            "Yes."  Her knuckles would split if she didn't unclench her hands. 

            The older girl frowned.  "Then why don't you come out?  Mother and the others are waiting to see you off."  She pursed her lips.  "Or are you going to stare at yourself in the mirror right through sunset and the rest of the night?"

            Kagome returned the frown and huffed.  "I'm coming.  I'm just…" she trailed off and stared at herself again, at a reflection she barely recognized.

            The jewel hung pale and luminescent between her breasts.

            Her sister's face softened.  "I was scared, too.  Just stay out of sight and you'll be perfectly safe."  Something dark flitted across her face.  "The young ones are friendly, but the adults are stupid and dangerous."  Her mouth flattened into a hard line. 

            Kagome nodded silently and touched the jewel.  Of her four older sisters, Eri had been the most recently introduced to the land above the waves.  And before Eri, the princesses had enjoyed a naive opinion of humans. 

            "I'll be careful."  She shoved off the stool and drifted toward the doorway.  In truth, she was more wary of her own world tonight than the one above the ocean.  Her spirit was like a beacon to them. 

            "Good."  Eri's face lit with a smile.  "You're going to have a lot of fun tonight, sister.  Grandfather's stories don't do the other world justice."  She caught her hand and gave it a squeeze.  "And now you can come with us when we surface."

            Kagome smiled as she let herself be led from her room and shook her worries from her shoulders.  Eri was right; she should be cautious but excited.  Since her eldest sister had crossed into womanhood and been allowed her first trip above the waves, Kagome had longed for her own Surfacing with a passion bordering on obsession.  Her wait hadn't been made easier by the occasional trips her sisters made, arm in arm, to the surface to lounge on moonlit beaches and sport in shallow coves.  The past year had been the hardest when even Eri hadn't been left to commiserate with. 

            Tonight that would change.  Despite the misfortune of having her birthday on the new moon, Kagome would still enjoy her long waited taste of air.  After years of stories from everyone around her, she would set her own eyes upon the miracles of the other world.  Now she would have her own stories to shape into songs.

            When she emerged from her room, the rest of her family was waiting for her.  Her mother, the Queen, folded her into a light embrace and checked her appearance.

            "Kagome," she sighed, "you look beautiful."

            She squirmed lightly and winced as one of the clams tightened its hold.  "Do I have to wear all this, mama?  It's not like anyone else will be there to see me."

            "Of course you do.  You are a princess, dear."  Her mother frowned at an errant strand of hair and tucked it back into place.

            "But it's really uncomfortable."  She hated to complain, but she would be slowed by the weight of the finery and her strokes would be only half as powerful with the clinging of the clams.

            "Pride must suffer pain," her mother quoted.  Kagome managed to keep from rolling her eyes, but a pout puckered her pink-stained lips.  If she had a pearl for every time she heard that…

            _I'd be able to build my own palace and do whatever I wanted._  She pushed the wry thought away.  There was no use in wishing for something so frivolous.  As for the clams, she would visit Kaede and leave them in the old miko's cave before surfacing.  Her duty as a miko came before accessories.  As long as she retrieved them in the morning before returning home, her mother would never suspect. 

            "Beware of the land-walkers, Kagome," her grandfather piped.  He squinted a stern eye at her and held out a closed fist.  Kagome eyed him warily before extending her hand. 

            Something squishy plopped into her palm.  A tiny shiver of disgust rippled up her spine and down her arms and the hair on her neck stood on end.

            "There is a long history behind the Sea Cucumber.  One of its lesser known properties is the ability to repel beings with ill intent."  Her grandfather's tone droned in the solemn cadence of one of his long-winded history lessons.

            "Yeah, just throw it at them."  Yuka, her eldest sister, wrinkled her nose.

            Ayumi, second eldest, giggled.  "Seriously, grandfather, what will a sea cucumber do?"

            "If anything, I'd say a human might take it as an invitation."  Naoko, the middle child, eyed the creature's shape with a dubious eye.  She had an interesting sense of humor. 

            Kagome jerked her hand away from the creature and resisted the urge to rub her palm against her scales to clean it.  She shot a mild glare at Naoko who just smiled benignly and shrugged.  The sea cucumber sank to the ocean floor and, as the royal family watched, began propelling itself along the sand in search of food.

            Grandfather sputtered.  "Is that what you call gratitude?"

            "Calm down, father." Queen Higarashi placed a soothing hand on his shoulder, "sunset is approaching.  We don't want to make Kagome wait any longer than necessary."

            Kagome judged the pull of the tide and figured she had about half an hour before dark.  If she wanted enough time to check in with Kaede, she needed to speed this up.  Fortunately, Eri seemed to sense her impatience.

            "Have fun tonight," she grinned as she gave her a brief hug.  Kagome smiled and shot her a thankful look as she pulled away. 

            Taking their cue, the rest of her sisters moved forward to give farewell embraces.  As Naoko leaned in for her turn, she whispered in Kagome's ear.  "I figure you're going to see the old bat."  The tone was disapproving but resigned.  "See if she has any charms to keep you safe."  Her face was solemn as she regarded her younger sister and Kagome frowned. 

            "Naoko, I can take care of myself," the old argument was implied in the fall of her voice, "and please don't call Kaede that." 

            "You wouldn't be in so much danger if she hadn't started training you, that's all." 

            Annoyance twisted her face for a moment before it melted into a tired sigh.  "You know that's not true."  Part of the superstition surrounding Kaede was due to the miko's own aloofness and severe expressions.  So while she lamented the hypocrisy of her family embracing one miko and being wary of the other, she understood why.

            Naoko shrugged a shoulder and her gaze slid away.  "I guess."

            She shook her head and moved back, turning a strained grin to the rest of her family.      

            "Have fun and be careful."  Her mother's smile was comforting and determined.  Kagome could see the thousands of cautions fighting to be spoken, but the Queen kept her peace.  After sending four children already, she had to be growing used to the anxiety. 

            "I'll be fine," she assured. 

            Now, if she could convince herself of that statement, she would be set.

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            "Grandmother Kaede?" she sang out as she swept through the waving reeds that shielded the entrance of the cave.

            "Aye, child.  I am here," Kaede called from her perch next to the miko pool. The surface was polished glass anchored by corals and shells.  The elder miko used it as a focus for her spiritual powers and to catch glimpses of the world on land.

            Kagome swam up and peered over Kaede's shoulder. 

            She looked down the tapestry-draped hall of a human palace.  A man with wavy dark hair and heavy robes strode down the far end and disappeared around the corner.

            "Who's that?"

            Kaede closed her one good eye.  "I do not yet know.  Youkai energy gathers around him daily, and I sense that he is a danger, but he has yet to act."  She opened her eye and the glass cleared until the combed sand beneath it was visible.

            Kagome felt a weight settle in her chest and absently clutched at the jewel.  The purity it radiated had kept her sleepless the night before.  All day she had debated whether to leave it in the hands of the old miko while she completed her ceremony.  Her dual duties often kept her eyes glued to the ceiling of her room through the long hours of night. 

            "Where is he?"  She tried to keep from sounding too worried. 

            Kaede peered at her from the corner of her good eye and smiled.  "Nowhere you could reach in one night, child.  The jewel should be safe." 

            The breath whooshed from her lungs and she grinned.  "Good.  Then I can keep it with me."

            "Of course you will," Kaede grumped.  "My home is too close to the border of the kingdom to safely leave it here.  The youkai get antsy enough when you are here to accompany it, and I am too old to be fighting Sirens."

            Kagome smiled.  "They cannot use it, though, without a soul."

            "No," the miko's voice lowered seriously, "But they would have no trouble finding a wayward land-walker to ensnare that could."  She wagged a stern finger at her.  "That reminds me, child.  I spied a grand ship earlier this afternoon.  It looked to be heading in this direction, so be cautious of being seen."

            She sighed.  "On the new moon?  I thought humans were supposed to be smart."

            Kaede chuckled.  "These looked mostly youkai, and of noble breed.  They seemed to be setting up for a celebration."  She eased herself from her stool of smooth coral and headed to the back wall.  "It's not just mermaids that send their younglings foolishly into danger for the sake of ceremony, you know."

            "I wouldn't mind except that mama insisted I wear all this."  She waved a hand at her finery and shot a dirty look over her shoulder at a clam that pinched.

            Kaede swept a critical eye over her and grunted.  "Sometimes I think your mother has no sense.  Leave the clams here.  You'll need to be free to fight if something comes for the jewel."  She turned back to the cabinets lining the back of the cave and plucked something from the shelf.  "Here, child, take this."

            Kagome took the flat, silver locket and turned it over in her hand curiously.

            "There is some paste in there for wounds," Kaede advised.  "It will disinfect better than saltwater and will clot the wound to keep sharks off your scent."

            The younger mermaid nodded and hooked the small pendant onto the cuff on her left wrist.  Always best to be prepared.        

            "I'm sure you've heard it enough, child, but be careful."  Kaede folded her hands across her waist and smiled. 

            Kagome returned the gesture as her fingers stroked the locket.  "I will."

            "And Kagome, child…"  Kaede's mouth softened in regret.  "I know it's hard to remember with all this, but… tonight is a celebration.  Relax and enjoy yourself."

            The little mermaid just smiled.

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            The prince kept his back to the rail of the ship for two reasons.  One, because he couldn't quite forgive the sun for setting on him this evening, and two, because he knew that watching him change would make the youkai court squirm.

            "I should get in their faces and force them to talk to me," he muttered.

            Sango leaned against the rail to his right and nodded.  "It would probably make them squirm." 

            A fang caught on his lip as he smirked.  He knew he liked the former demon slayer for a reason.  For being human, she had a youkai's cold instincts.

            "My Lord, you shouldn't strain your reputation at court any further," Miroku chided on his left. 

            He snorted.  "It wasn't my idea to celebrate my birthday out here in the middle of the damn ocean where we can't get away from each other.  They can bitch to Sesshoumaru if they've got a problem."    

            Miroku sighed and joined the other two in their slouch against the railing.  Misery loves company.   

            "Any minute now," Inu-Yasha mused and folded his arms across his chest to wait.  As much as he despised his human nights, they had their own kind of charm.  Watching the Court try to ignore him without insulting the honor of the kingdom was amusing, because while Sesshoumaru wouldn't breathe word of any breech of conduct to the king, Miroku and Sango certainly would.  And watching King Inutaisho glower at his court was high on the prince's entertainment list.

            "There's supposed to be a fireworks display just after sunset."  Sango stretched her arms out in front of her and rolled her wrists to pop the joints.  "Prince Sesshoumaru said you weren't allowed to sulk off below deck."

            "Prince Sesshoumaru can bite me." 

            She shrugged.  "Fine, as long as you tell him yourself."

            "The sun has set," the monk noted as he straightened and set his staff before him on the deck.  Sango shook her arms out and rolled her neck a bit, then braced her feet into a defensive pose at her prince's side.

            "Yeah, no shit," he growled as he felt his youkai drain and the world fade from his senses.  He would know exactly when the sun set on these nights if he was buried seventy feet below the earth. 

            The awkward silence on deck announced the Court's notice.  That and the studious way everyone avoided making proper eye contact with him.  Like if they ignored the quality of his dress they could lump him with his two bodyguards as inconsequential.

            "Happy birthday, my Lord," Miroku murmured quietly.

            "Thanks, smartass."

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            The steady diminishing of pressure against her body was the only indication Kagome had that she was about to surface.  The sea was inky with only a faint, phosphorous glow that clung to the milky paleness of her skin and glinted through the length of her hair. 

            In this darkness, her eyes were useless.  Instead, she stretched out her other senses.  The subtle changes of temperature marked her passage through ribboned layers of water, but she ignored the soft tug of their currents.  And the ever present tingle in her awareness assured her she was swimming parallel to the Earth's pole, South. 

            Not a spark of light, but she wasn't blind. 

            She kicked upward through a stream of warmth, then shivered as she crested the current into icy water.  The surface was almost upon her and she had yet to run into any trouble.  Perhaps she could take Kaede's advice after all.

            Kagome grinned to herself and gave an extra powerful kick as the ocean seemed to part before her, hurtling her toward the world above her own.

            She shot up from the water in a fountain of sea foam and the glitter of silver and pearls.  The wind rushed against her face as she opened her eyes to a velvet curtain dripping with jeweled light. 

            _The sky_, she realized, tears forming in her eyes as she opened her mouth and pulled in her first breath of air.

            Fire burst before her eyes a moment before the crack of an explosion slammed against her ears.  Kagome choked, her arms flailing in the thin air, before slapping against the surface of the water and sinking back into the sea.

            For a moment she just let herself sink.  Her ears rang softly and spots danced across her vision.  Water rushed back into her lungs and she suffocated slightly as her body tried to decide where she was getting her oxygen from.  She'd never made the transition before, and to immediately switch back was dizzying. 

            As the shock of the explosion wore off, her brain sluggishly provided her a replay of what had happened. 

            "Fire… works."  The word tasted funny on her tongue, just as any human word did. 

            Overhead, the muffled echo of a second explosion filtered through the water.  She looked up and stared at the fragmented splash of color as it melted toward her.  Kaede had told her stories of grand celebrations where fireworks lit the night sky with violent rainbows, but she was still unprepared for the beauty.

            Her eyes still locked on the sky through the prism of the water, she cautiously kicked back toward the surface.

            This time when she tasted air, she heard the faint whistle of the little cannon as it shot into the air.  The noise was still loud enough that she winced, but she kept her eyes as wide open as possible.  No, Kaede had not done the beauty of fireworks justice.

            A faint shout tore her eyes from the sky and to her immediate left. 

            The ship idled on the water like a king lounging on his throne.  Kagome gasped and immediately dove back underwater to swim closer.  As interesting as fireworks were, they paled in the face of her curiosity about land-walkers.  They were the lords of dry land and the surface of the sea, and the mermaid's bane. 

            "Powerful they may be, but that doesn't mean they're smart enough to tell the difference between a mermaid and a Siren," was Kaede's summation of the relationship between the two worlds.  Kagome and her sisters had taken the warnings for granted.  To them a Siren looked no more like a mermaid than a land youkai did a human.  So it wasn't until Eri had Surfaced that they appreciated the misplaced hatred and fear humans had for their kind.   

            In her exploration, Eri had followed a small inlet up to the edges of a small, seaside village.  The children had been amazed and delighted by her sudden appearance.  They'd played for a few minutes before the extra noise brought one of the adults to the shore's edge to investigate.  Eri had barely escaped as rocks were hurtled toward her head and a few men waded into the water with daggers and shovels.  The village had mobilized in moments to drive off the "sea witch." 

            Since then, Kagome had taken the older miko's words of caution with newfound gravity.  And it was because of this wariness that she waited until she was well in the shadow of the ship before surfacing again.  From this angle, the people on the ship couldn't see her unless they looked straight down over the rail.  And even then, in the night and with her dark hair, it would be hard for them to realize what she was before she had a chance to duck back into the safety of the water.

            She peeked up from the water cautiously.  A handful of human-looking youkai stood primly beside the railing of the ship, heads tipped up to watch the fireworks.  She eyed the elaborate clothing and the abundance of precious metals and jewels and judged them to be nobility of some sort.  Kaede's rule stated that the amount and layers of clothing a land-walker wore was in direct proportion to their wealth and social standing.  Kagome had been incredulous at first, since wearing so much clothing would only cause discomfort and impair their movement, but then she'd ruefully remembered the eight clams she was required to wear at any public event.   

            "Hmm," she mused to herself and startled.  Her voice sounded much different traveling through air than in the water.  The tone was much sharper and sounded almost hollow when compared to the resonance it had under water.  She would have to try singing later when there weren't youkai around to notice. 

            The fireworks display wore on and Kagome began to grow bored.  The youkai were very pretty to look at, but they weren't doing anything particularly interesting.  Their appreciation of the show was only interrupted to make an odd remark to their neighbor, and the fireworks made it impossible for Kagome to catch what they were saying. 

            She floated down the length of the boat and alternated between studying the youkai and enjoying the fireworks.  A spot of black caught her eye and she fixed on a trio standing toward the far end of the ship. 

            Humans. 

            Kagome swam until she was directly beneath them and peered up, completely baffled.  From what Kaede told her, the relations between the two land races were frigidly polite.  The kingdoms tended to be either purely youkai or human, the only mixing occurring in the lowest classes.  To find three well-dressed humans on a youkai pleasure ship had to be a rare site.  She would have an interesting story for her sisters, after all.

            From their clothing, they looked to be a monk, a noble, and a warrior.  The warrior and monk flanked the noble, and though they appeared to be enjoying the fireworks, their attention remained with the ship.  The noble sulked between them, making no pretense of watching the fireworks, but staring blankly ahead when he wasn't casting suspicious glances over his shoulder.  All three looked to be around her age, if a little older.  And all three were quickly engraved on her mind's eye. 

            She wanted to call out to them, to ask what they were doing in the middle of a youkai celebration, but held her tongue.  Youkai opinion of her kind wasn't any friendlier, and if they were anything like the demons of the ocean, they had sharper senses. 

            She was so engrossed in watching the humans that she didn't notice the silence until one of them spoke.

            "What a lovely tribute to your honor, my Lord."  The monk's voice was low and silken, drifting down to Kagome like the waving of a seaflower. 

            "Bullshit," the noble barked, "they did it for their own amusement."

            She strained her ears and tilted her head even further back to make sure she didn't miss a word of conversation.  If she listened long enough, the mystery behind the three would surely reveal itself.

            "A prince does not scorn a gift, brother."  The voice flowed like an icy, northern current from somewhere behind the three at the rail.  The warrior and monk turned to face the man, bowing low in turn.  The noble rolled his eyes and kept his vigil of the distant horizon.

            "If I thought it was actually a gift, I might be grateful, Sesshoumaru." 

            Kagome's eyebrows furrowed.  That was a demon name.  Was the human adopted into a youkai family?  Maybe he was a younger prince of a human kingdom sent to be fostered in a youkai court. 

            "Hold your tongue, prince.  I will inform father of this insolence and ingratitude.  Do not forget it was his good humor that demanded this celebration."  His voice remained smooth, but the underlying malice brought a shiver to Kagome's skin.

            The noble's face darkened and he turned away from her to face Sesshoumaru.

            "Yeah, I'm sure he wanted me out here in the middle of the ocean tonight.  Unlike you, brother," he drawled the word tauntingly, "he gives a shit about my life."

            Kagome was terribly lost.  She gave up trying to understand the relationship between the human prince and his apparently youkai brother.  The situation was too confusing for her to process when she was simultaneously trying to keep her position steady amidst the rolling waves.

            She missed the rest of the argument at the sudden awareness of her surroundings.  The ocean was becoming increasingly restless and a stiff, cold wind whipped her hair from the water and tangled it about her face.  She turned to look at the night sky and found it uncomfortably dark.  The stars winked out one by one as a black billow of storm clouds rolled over the ship. 

            She slipped back underwater and dove down a bit to feel the currents.  Her face paled and she quickly resurfaced.  This would be a bad storm, the kind that dragged the stately works of man down to the quiet domain of the merfolk.  She had seen the bloated bodies of men lost to the waves of such storms before.  She hoped her first Surfacing wouldn't introduce her to more.

            When she resurfaced, the mood of the ship above her had darkened.  The earlier argument had been abandoned as the youkai prince yelled calm commands over the increasing pitch of the wind to his crew and passengers. 

            The monk and warrior remained at the railing of the ship.  She couldn't hear their voices over the troubled waves, but could see the intensity and frustration on their faces.  Between them, the human prince stood with his arms folded stubbornly across his chest with a sturdy rope tied about his waist.  From their repeated pointing and entreaties, they looked like they were trying to persuade him to go below deck.  And the prince would have none of it. 

            With a final, unheard snarl, he threw up his hands at them and stalked away from the rail and her sight.  Kagome hoped it was to go below deck.  Humans were much more susceptible to storms than youkai, and she felt empathy for the unhappy prince.  She knew what it was like to be ostracized among her own people. 

            Within a short time, the storm kicked into its full fury and buffeted the sides of the boat with increasingly large waves.  The sails had long been dropped and the grand ship looked rather pitiful against the cold wrath of the sky. 

            Kagome dived and leapt amongst the waves a little distance off.  A part of her relished the storm.  The waves knocked her a bit dizzy now and then, but she was in no danger of drowning as she'd by now mastered switching between breathing air and water.  But her play was dampened by a growing worry for the youkai ship.  The waves were swamping the deck with every pass, now.  When she rode a high crest, she could see the sodden forms of the crew sliding haphazardly across the deck, anchored to the ship only by the ropes tied to the main mast. 

            "Please don't sink."  Her voice was lost in the shriek of the winds and a moment later she was plunged into the ocean by the wave she'd been riding.  She flipped and surfaced again, almost on top of the ship.  Wary of being dashed against the sides or, worse, being flopped onto the deck like a fish, she started to dive again when something caught her eye.

            The human prince hung halfway over the rail, grasping a young-looking youkai sailor by the hand.  The young one dangled over the edge of the ship, the rope about his waist waving a torn, useless end in the wind.  The monk and warrior were there as well, aiding the prince as he grappled with the sailor. 

            Kagome gasped and swam closer, keeping her eyes glued to the sight.  If the youkai fell, she would be there to keep him from drowning.  She surfaced and fought to keep her position beneath the unfolding drama. 

            The prince was shouting at someone over his shoulder as they dragged the sailor back up to the rail.  The youth scrambled over the side and a few other sailors converged on him with a new rope to secure him to the ship again.  Kagome smiled and began to edge back from the side of the ship now that the danger was past. 

            She almost didn't notice in time as the next wave rose over her back to crash into the ship.  The sudden drop in water kicked her instincts into high gear and she dove straight down to avoid being slammed into the side of the ship.  The current swept her underneath the belly of the ship and she let herself drift for a moment to catch her breath. 

            When she tilted her head up to swim to the surface again, she blanched.  A body bobbed above her, being tossed by the waves.  She shot up in panic, her arms outstretched to reach the man before he drowned.  His struggles turned sluggish as she neared and he turned listlessly toward her as his body began to sink under its own weight.  Half-lidded, gray eyes stared blankly at her as she closed the distance between them and hurtled back above the waves into the air he needed.

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            The damn wave had caught him off-guard.  There'd only been time for a quick curse as it swept him off his feet and slammed him to the other side of the ship.  He gasped as the rope around his waist caught, holding him to the mast, and then snapped, leaving him to the mercy of the wave.

            His senses scrambled as he was somersaulted into the water and dragged about by the current.  He slammed against something unforgivingly solid and his vision darkened with spots.  A growl ripped from his throat and he clawed at the water to try and find the surface.  His world narrowed to fulfilling one desperate need: to breathe. 

            The air was almost as cold as the water, so it took a few moments for him to realize his head was above water.  He sucked in a ragged breath and choked as a wave swept over his head and his lungs half-filled with water.  He struggled to surface again, but found every attempt thwarted by the incessant press of the storm waves.  They held him immobile just below where life begged him to draw in a breath. 

            His limbs were heavy now, dragging him even further from his world.  If he'd been in his hanyou form, he could have lasted much longer.  The fight wouldn't be so easily lost.  His body wouldn't ache so harshly from its fight with the ship.  His vision wouldn't be turning to swirling patterns of gray.

            He wasn't aware of giving up the fight, only that he couldn't remember why he was fighting in the first place.  And as his eyes finally slid closed, he barely registered a vision he decided he didn't mind dying with.

            Blue eyes pleaded with him from a pale and perfect face framed by dark hair.  And her arms were stretched toward him, hands splayed.

            He couldn't remember a time anyone had reached so desperately for him.

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A/N: Yeah, things probably seem a bit weird in both of the kids' situations.  We'll get to more of that in the next few chapters.  I've wrestled with Anderson's concepts and warped it into something I think resembles the original Inu-Yasha realm quite well.  Not everything with the jewel and all that is the same, but pretty close.


	2. Prejudice

A/N: Okay, back in action with the second chapter.  The beta search went well.  I found a few girls who look like they'll be able to help me out beautifully, so everyone cheer for Kendiefox, Caeria, Claire, and Kat Morning, my new betas.  Claire will be helping out with Wakareru, as she's more of an RK girl.  Caeria will be my IY specialist for Without Words, and Kat will be neck deep in both fics.  Kendiefox, as always, is my grammar and style guru, so she'll be helping out with both stories, as well.  With that said, everyone should **re-read chapter one** now that it has been properly beta-ed.  The changes were small, but significant.  Some confusions have been cleared up and the chapter is generally cleaner.  So go!  And then read this!

 **Disclaimer: **I own neither Inu-Yasha nor Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid."  Disney can bite me.  I didn't use their mangled, cuddly-goodness version of the story   I mean, I like fluff just as much as the next gal… but they totally nixed the awesome _angst!_  

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 **Without Words: **Prejudice

            Kagome turned bleary eyes toward the horizon as the first faint ribbons of false dawn reflected off the waves.  Pink and green fire rippled across the glassy surface of the ocean and she tipped her face up in search of what little warmth the light could offer.  Her sodden prince stirred weakly in her arms and she held back a sigh of relief.  Perhaps he could sense that he was almost safely back to land. 

            She craned her neck around and judged the distance remaining between her and the fog-draped shore.  They had been drifting toward it all night.  It was grueling work trying to kick while grappling a man a full head longer than she was, so she'd had to limit her efforts to making sure they drifted toward land and not further out to sea.  Even then, she was absolutely exhausted.  The prince was heavy and not buoyant.  Her own instincts were arguing for her to dive down and seek shelter among caves or reefs.  Floating in open water was almost like asking predators to attack them.  And if it came to a fight, she would have to abandon her charge or risk both of their deaths. 

            "Almost home, prince."  She pressed a comforting cheek to the crown of his head.  Long hours spent fighting storm and exhaustion had melted any shyness she might have felt.  She'd blushed and tried to rearrange him the first time his face had slumped against the natural pillow of her bosom, but had since shrugged the discomfort away.  Her shoulder had been starting to cramp with the earlier position anyway, and he wasn't awake to take any enjoyment out of the situation, either.

            She glanced over her shoulder again and grinned tiredly.           

            "In a minute you'll have sand and maybe some crabs for a pillow," she murmured to the unconscious man.  The large bump on the back of his head was hidden by dark, matted hair, but she knew it was probably still fierce. 

            When she'd first lifted him from the waves, he hadn't started breathing immediately.  Knowing that he'd swallowed water, she'd driven a hard fist into his gut to push up his diaphragm.  He'd purged the sea and started drawing in shallow breaths, but hadn't regained consciousness.  Frantic patting and coaxing on her part had discovered the nasty lump on the back of his head.  With a discouraged sigh, she'd hooked her arms under his own and hauled him back against her chest to ride out the remainder of the storm, knowing he wouldn't be waking any time soon to help her.

            "That knot better not have cracked your skull," she warned.  Fighting to keep his head above water all night had given her a righteous sense of authority over his well-being.  She was risking the safety of the guardian of the shikon jewel, the merkingdom's youngest princess, to save him. 

            "I shouldn't be doing this at all," she sighed.  Surely Kaede would have a long lecture about priorities and responsibility ready for her when she got back.  She just hoped the elder miko wouldn't inform her mother of her misadventure.  A half-trained miko would not improve if she was confined to the palace.

            Her lips quirked and she flicked her tail to push them to shore faster.  False dawn was quickly lightening the sky and she wanted to make it back to the safety of the waves before most of the humans began stirring.   

            Sand gritted against her fins and she groaned.  Holding him afloat was one thing.  Wrestling him onto shore without legs to walk on was another.  Still, her tail was almost three times as strong as any pair of human legs.  After a few floundering kicks, she found a rhythm to push herself and her soggy prince far enough up the beach to be mostly out of the waves.  Enough that he wouldn't drown, but not so much that her skin would dry out. 

            "You're home," she announced with tired cheer and patted a hand to his chest.  She hoped he wouldn't fall sick.  Kaede said humans were prone to illness when exposed too long to cool air when they were wet. 

            "Okay, you should wake up, now," she coaxed.  "I can't get you any further up shore than this, and I don't know how long it will take your people to find you."  She stroked the damp ends of his bangs away from his forehead and chafed his hands between her own.  He was alarmingly cold. 

            "Please wake up.  I'll feel like an idiot if I did all this only for you to give up now."  She hummed a morning song under her breath and looked up to get a better idea of where they were.

            The beach sloped up for a good distance before the soft edges of a low cliff thrust up from the sand.  The tawny and tough vegetation of the coastline blocked any view of what lay beyond, but she thought she saw the crest of a tower a ways off to the left.  Hopefully the humans who lived in the tower and surrounding buildings visited the beach in the mornings.

            A pulse of magic rippled through her just as the first rays of the sun fell across her back.  She gasped and sat upright, staring down at the prince in surprise.  That magic had come from him.  Magic that felt… like youkai. 

            "How?"  Mild alarm snaked through her veins.  If he was truly a youkai, it would explain his relationship with the prince Sesshoumaru.  But if he was a demon, why did he feel and look like a human?     

            Another pulse of magic halted her whirlwind thoughts.  She peered into his face as the features wavered a bit.  Then a streak of white shot from his temple down through his hair.  His ears elongated and began sliding up the sides of his head.  His hands flexed and she looked down to see thick claws growing from his fingertips.  The power of his aura doubled and then tripled as the transformation took place.  She dimly wondered if she should back away, but was too shocked to put any urgency behind the thought.

            It lasted maybe a minute and then she was looking at what could have been the prince's twin brother, if he were a youkai. 

            She perked and slapped the end of her tail against the ground as the solution came to her.

            "You're a hanyou."  She grinned as Kaede's old lessons filtered into her mind.  Half youkai had certain time when their demon energy ebbed.  His must be the night of the new moon.  The argument about King Inutaisho not wanting his son out last night suddenly made sense.  And it explained Sesshoumaru's apparent hatred for the younger prince.  But how had such a mix of blood happened in the first place?

            "Will you wake up now?"  She rubbed his hand again.  Reason said she should move out of sight, but part of her couldn't resist staying beside him.  Would his eyes be golden like the other demons' she'd seen?  Did he remember being plucked from the waves?  When he woke, would he recognize her voice from all the coaxing and singing she'd done throughout the night?  If he didn't, she would be very annoyed with him, irrational as it was.

            She trilled a silly melody that mothers sang to get lazy children from their beds.  All night she'd delighted in the strange quality her tone had in air.  Singing was one of her few indulgences and she'd tried using the charm of her voice to lure the prince back to consciousness.

            Her hands patted his face, his chest, and his arms.  She trailed her fingers through the damp length of his hair.  The fluffy ears he'd acquired during the transformation received awe-filled attention as well.  They were incredibly soft beneath her fingertips.

            "Wake up.  Your body isn't like mine.  It'll melt into mush if you don't get out of the water." 

            She thumped his chest with a gentle fist and sighed.  She wanted to talk to him.  Knowing that he was a hanyou had only added to her curiosity about him.  She wanted to know what it was like to be able to shed one form for another.  As much as she loved her tail, she wouldn't pass up a chance to strut around on the sand with a pair of legs.  Kaede said humans danced almost as well with their long legs as mermaids did with their tails.  It was something she'd always wanted to try even if she knew it was impossible.  But… if this boy could change forms by magic, who was to say she couldn't as well?

            A groan ripped through his throat and she leaned forward eagerly.  She wanted to see his eyes the moment they opened.  When he found her hovering over him, would he scowl or smile?  He'd scowled a lot last night, but a silly part of her wished the first thing he did upon seeing her was smile.

            "Wake up, handsome prince, your princess is getting impatient."  She chuckled and curled his hand closer to her chest.  Propriety and a streak of shyness kept her from hugging it to her. 

            Her shoulder wrenched back just before lightning shots of pain arched down her arm and back through her body.  A startled shriek ripped from her throat and she clutched her hand to the ribbon of fire oozing across her upper arm.

            "Back away from him, Siren."  The voice barely registered as her eyes found blood welling up between the fingers of the hand gripping her arm. 

            "Hear me, Siren.  Back away from the man.  Get back to the ocean where you belong."  There was no warmth in that voice.  Cold calculation and wariness threaded through the commands. 

            She swallowed back tears and stared up at the woman a few yards up the beach.  Her dark hair lifted in the morning sea breeze and Kagome felt a faint pulse of recognition before she focused on the bow growing from the woman's hands.  

            "You shot me."  Her voice sounded very young to herself.

            "I am protecting the young man you were about to make dinner of.  Or sport.  Either way, you are not welcome on this beach.  Get back to the waves."  Another arrow was notched and pulled back.  This time aimed at her chest. 

            Kagome pushed her shock aside and swallowed.  "I was not going to eat him," she finally managed.  And then more hotly, "I was going to leave, but I was worried he might not be found.  I cannot carry him up further and he will fall ill in the cold like this."

            The other woman arched an eyebrow.  Kagome wondered at the solemn cut of her robes.  They were too elegant for the common class, but not elaborate enough to be noble.  Yet, there was a noble air to her. 

            "You will make sure he is safe?" she pressed on after a moment.  Her glance flicked from the arrow to the prince.  "He is part demon.  You won't kill him, will you?"  If she was ready to murder a Siren or mermaid, she might carry the same prejudice to creatures on land.

            The tip of the arrow drooped and then fell away as the woman regarded her with expressionless eyes. 

            "No." 

            And in that word Kagome thought she could hear the woman acknowledge the hypocrisy behind the distinction.

            "Thank you."  She bowed her head.  "I'll just 'get back to the waves' then."  She tried to keep the bitterness from her voice and almost succeeded.  Pain and disappointment strained her sunny disposition. 

            She spared a final glance at her hanyou prince's face and quickly began shuffling back into the lap of the waves.  Tears threatened and she blinked them away furiously.  She had been stupid to let such romantic ideas get her hopes up.  The woman's reaction had only confirmed everything she had been warned of about humans.  Just because the surly boy was a prince didn't make him an exception.  He probably would have opened his eyes and tried to kill her with those claws she'd been so fascinated with. 

            Another story of human ignorance to share with her sisters. 

            No… no, she would not share this with anyone, only Kaede because she would have to explain the wound.

            Just a few more kicks and she would be back in the safety of the water.  She pushed the damp hair clinging to her chest away and froze.  Her hand wrapped around her neck frantically. 

            The jewel.  When had she lost it?

            Kagome twisted her upper body around wildly and searched the prince with her eyes.    

            "Siren," the woman warned. 

            Kagome glanced up at her and saw that she'd restrung her bow.  Her jaw was set in a firm, disapproving line.

            _She thinks I'm going to try to eat him again, _she realized.  A glint drew her gaze back to the prince and her chest constricted.  There lay the jewel in his slightly curled hand, the chain tangled in his claws.

            _What if I just explain that it's mine?_ She took another peek at the other woman, who was now advancing on her in determined strides. 

            Panic chilled her veins and Kagome cast one last, desperate glance at the jewel and the prince before hastily flinging herself into the welcoming embrace of the ocean.  An arrow thunked into the sand just to the right of her head as she wriggled free of the sand bank.  There was no other choice. 

            She only stopped long enough to smear some of Kaede's salve onto the arrow wound with shaking hands before racing through the ocean back to her mentor's cave. 

            She should have left the jewel with Kaede.  Its glittering surface never should have crested the waves.  For thousands of years it had lain safely dormant under the protection of the mermaids.  And now, because of one act of mercy, it had found its way back onto the land where it had been created.

            Kagome had lost the Shikon no Tama, the Jewel of Four Souls.  And in the hands of man, its power could be unleashed.

            A burning voice taunted her as she flew recklessly through the sea.

            She had failed.

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            Kaede was waiting for her just beyond the entrance of the cave.  Deep lines of age outlined a face set with worry and fear. 

            Kagome barreled into the older woman's embrace, and for a few minutes all she could do was swallow convulsively to hold back her tears.  The older woman simply held her.  She didn't offer soothing words or caresses to ease her apprentice, only the security of her presence.

            "Grandmother Kaede, I've lost the jewel."  Saying the words out loud almost felt good to her.  The admission made it final, and now that she'd accepted the situation, maybe she could do something about it.

            She took a deep, shaky breath and leaned back to meet her mentor's eyes.

            "I know, child.  I saw you on the beach in my mirror."  Kaede held her at arms length for a moment before turning back to her cave. 

            Kagome followed her mutely and rubbed a hand absently across the base of her neck.  The jewel had been a solid weight around her throat since her twelfth year when her miko powers had begun to manifest.  Without it she felt oddly buoyant.

            "I guess the chain got tangled in the prince's claws when I was bending over him."  She sighed as she settled on a low coral stool. 

            Kaede grunted assertion.  "Yes, it broke when you jerked back from the arrow."

            "How much did you see?"  Her eyes traced her mentor's movements as she went to the back of the cave and rummaged through her shelves.

            "Only a little.  I sought your spirit out just after sunrise because I was beginning to wonder at your absence."  She shot her a speculative glance over her shoulder.  "You found the youkai ship, I gather."

            Kagome plucked at a string of pearls that had come loose from the bodice sometime in the night.  "Yes.  I couldn't just let him drown, though.  He's a hanyou and last night was his human time.  He almost didn't survive anyway."

            Kaede swam back to her and crouched next to her wounded arm.  "Lucky for him you have such a soft heart.  Though, he won't be properly thankful." 

            "I don't think he'll even remember that I saved him," Kagome agreed and winced as Kaede took a soft sponge and started cleaning the wound.

            "Well, at least he is a hanyou." 

            She sounded almost hopeful.  Kagome stared at her mentor's down-turned, calm face. 

            "What do you mean?"

            Kaede gave her a sharp glance and Kagome took a pensive breath.  The older miko expected her to figure it out on her own.  Her training was constant.

            "A hanyou," she mused as she turned to stare vacantly at the miko pool.  Her gaze sharpened.  "Oh.  Because he is so unique, his soul will be easier to search out with the mirror.  We'll be able to find where he lives so I can follow and retrieve the jewel."

            "Indeed."  Kaede smeared a new salve over the wound and muttered a few words under her breath.  Kagome obediently opened herself so her mentor could tap a bit of her spirit to speed the healing of the small gash. 

            She wasn't good enough to use her powers to heal yet, but the raw power was there for Kaede to use if she needed it.  The older miko was old enough that using her spirit for big works was a risk.  At two hundred and ninety years, she was nearing the maximum lifespan of a mermaid.  And any day, the renewing ability of her spirit could give out and her body would dissolve to become the foam lining the sea waves.

            _Hopefully not before I find the jewel_, she thought darkly and shook her head.  She needed to stay positive.  A miko's spirit became clouded when she let fear distort her thinking. 

            "Grandmother Kaede, could we search for the jewel through the mirror?  I mean, it houses souls."

            Her mentor patted her arm and drifted back to her pool.  "I wish it were that simple, but my mirror is blind to the jewel.  Perhaps it is having so many souls trapped within such a small space.  We'll have to settle for finding this young prince of yours."

            Kagome nodded and balled her fists expectantly.  "I'll go tell mother that you need me for a few days and start right away."  _I should have stayed close by to begin with_, she added silently, cursing her earlier panic.

            "No, you will tell your mother how tired you are from staying up so long and rest," Kaede returned sharply.  "I'm surprised you haven't fallen asleep yet just sitting there."

            "But my first duty is to the jewel," she insisted.

            Kaede's eye widened and she looked away with a sigh.  "Yes, child, I suppose it is."  She began waving her hands over the surface of the pool.  "However, you won't be of use to anyone if you don't rest.  And it will take me a while to find where exactly this prince is so you can retrace your strokes."  She glanced at her.  "Unless you can remember from earlier."

            Kagome sighed and shook her head.  A pleasant fog was drooping over her mind now that the adrenaline from her escape was wearing off.  She wouldn't be able to navigate accurately in this condition. 

            "Fine, I'll go rest."  She pushed away from the stool and drifted to the door. 

            "And be sure you think of a good excuse for your mother.  I don't want her sending a messenger here later to fetch you when you are searching the coast."

            She nodded absently and frowned.  "How long do you think it will take to get back the jewel?"

            Kaede shrugged.  "It depends on how long it takes before the prince comes close enough to the water for you to speak to him.  You'll need to work on looking harmless enough that he doesn't immediately take you for a Siren.  Youkai may have sharper instincts than humans, but they are as equally ignorant about the creatures of the sea as them," she warned.  "And Spirits help you if he moves inland.  If he does, the jewel is lost."

            So far, Kagome wasn't enjoying her first days of adulthood. 

            "I just wanted to save him," she whispered. 

            "I know, child."

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            Inu-Yasha woke to a pounding headache, sand, and the brilliant stabbing of morning sunlight in his eyes.

            "What the hell?" 

            He lifted a hand to shield his face and wondered briefly when the sun had decided to turn such a cheerful shade of pink.  He blinked salt-encrusted eyelids and stared at the jewel dangling from the chain tangled in his claws. 

            "How are you feeling?" a gentle, melodious voice asked from somewhere above him.  A pale face drifted into view framed by softly curling hair haloed in sunlight.  In the distance, he could hear a chorus of voices praising the new day.    

            "Shit," he growled, "I'm fucking dead."

            The face above him jerked back and gasped.

            "Is he awake?"  The singing faded out and curious voices crowded around him, more bright heads of hair blocking the sun from his eyes.  He blinked rapidly and faces came into focus. 

            "Whoa… I thought angels were all supposed to be good looking.  I mean, isn't it a rule somewhere?"

            Blondie gasped again and pointed an accusing finger at him.  "He's vile!"

            A brunette sniffed.  "Maybe we should just leave him on the beach for the seagulls."

            "Remember yourselves, ladies," a cold voice drifted over the crowd.  The girls looked up as one to face someone behind him. 

            Inu-Yasha tried to tilt his head back to see and yelped.  No, he couldn't be dead and have this big of a lump on his head.  He fingered it gently and sighed.  His demon blood would take care of it, but it would take a few hours.  Until then, he'd have to deal with the headache.

            "Bring him to one of the guest rooms for a bath and a meal.  And be gentle.  He is injured."

            The group turned and once again he was the object of scrutiny.  He ignored them in favor of mentally taking stock of his well-being.  Hostile stares just didn't faze him anymore.

            "Can you get up on your own, demon?" the same brunette asked, her nose crinkling as she did. 

            Inu-Yasha rolled his eyes.  "Feh.  Don't want to touch the 'vile' demon?"  He levered himself to his feet gingerly.  The women fluttered away from him, the heavy fabric of their robes gritting against the sand. 

            He absently brushed sand from his soggy vest and scanned the area to identify his location.  He studied the local vegetation, felt the wind currents, took note the color of the sand, variety of seashells, and the particular sea life scuttling across the surf. 

            "Where the hell am I?" 

            Geography hadn't been his strongest subject.

            One of the girls blinked and blurted, "The beach."

            "Hush, Kione," Blondie snapped.  "You're in the country of Kishibe.  This is the Southern Shinto Shrine."

            His ears flattened.  "You mean I got rescued by a bunch of prissy mikos?"

            Blondie smiled and opened her mouth, but Kione cut her off.  "Actually, Kikyo was the one who saved you.  She came and got the rest of us because she couldn't carry you herself."  She pointed up the beach.

            Inu-Yasha turned to follow her finger and stared.  The wind whipped the thick loops of her hair across her face, but she made no move to brush it away.  He could feel the strength of her aura from where he stood.  Her gaze on him was steady and neutral.  She was eerily familiar. 

            "She saved me?"

            "She only did her duty as a priestess," Blondie piped sourly.  "Now let's get back to the shrine before we all freeze."

            The women murmured agreement and began shuffling back up the beach.  Inu-Yasha let them pass by him, his ears trained on the woman standing in the shadow of the cliff.  The longer he stared at her, the more elusive his memory became in trying to place her.  Still, he couldn't ignore the strange pull of recognition.

            "Um, excuse me?" 

            He tore his eyes away from Kikyo to focus on a slight priestess who had hung back.  Kione. 

            She flashed him a shy smile.  "We were wondering," she pointed at his hand, "what is that jewel you have?"

            He blinked and stared at the small necklace still tangled in his fingers.  The chain was delicate, like something his mother would have worn.  He certainly had never owned anything like it, but there it was sitting comfortably in the palm of his hand.

            "I don't know," he answered truthfully.     

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            "The prince has left," Kikyo announced from the doorway.

            The High Miko of the shrine gazed out the window of the tower onto the shrine grounds below.  "Good."

            Kikyo folded her hands together in her sleeves.  "He should have stayed until his head injury had healed.  Why did you forbid me to convince him?"

            Amusement threaded the miko's voice.  "He is a hanyou, Kikyo, they do not need our concern."  She straightened, her eyes pinning on something outside of the window.

            The younger miko breathed in through her nose and let it out slowly through her mouth.  Even a hanyou was vulnerable with a head injury.  He should have been persuaded to rest. 

            "How did you convince him to give up the jewel?" She moved from the doorway into the middle of the room.  The High Miko of the shrine glanced back at her and smiled.

            "I told him that, yes, the jewel is as powerful as it feels, but that it is useless to him.  Why not let us mikos protect it?"

            "You lied to him."  Kikyo pitched her voice to be as bland as possible, but she couldn't keep a small frown from tweaking her lips.

            The High Miko watched the young prince trot into the forest bordering the shrine grounds from the window, so she missed the disapproving gesture.

            "Of course I lied to him.  We do not know anything about this jewel except that it is immensely powerful and not inherently Good.  He is a prince from a youkai kingdom.  I would not risk such power in their hands."  Her voice crunched and growled huskily.  Even faced with her back, Kikyo could see the scars on the older woman's neck rolling with each pain-filled word. 

            "The jewel was not tainted in his grasp," she pointed out calmly.  Though she understood the High Miko's prejudices, she couldn't embrace them.  Her home country rubbed easily with the border of a youkai kingdom.  In her experience, monsters didn't always earn their name with a set of fangs.

            The High Miko ignored her.  "You said the jewel was forgotten by the Siren who brought him to our shore to feed?"  She held the jewel up to the light of the morning sun.  Pale, pink dots of light danced across the floor of the dim room and over Kikyo's face. 

            "I didn't say she was trying to feed."

            The miko frowned.  "That is what Sirens do, girl."  Her eyes clouded with distant pain.  "Do not be fooled by an innocent looking face." 

            "I don't think she was a Siren."

            She shook her head sharply.  "Nonsense.  She was hovering over him, you said.  What else could she have been?  Dragging a helpless hanyou into the ocean on his human night when his soul is pure and vulnerable."  She clucked her tongue and tucked the jewel into a velvet pouch.  "It is sickening."   
            Kikyo didn't voice her opinion.  The High Miko was letting her prejudices cloud her judgment. 

            "We will need to contact the nearby monasteries and see if we can cajole a few monks to help us protect this jewel."  She turned from the window and handed the small pouch to Kikyo.

            At least this idea was sound.  "It will call to any who seek power.  Demons and humans alike will answer."  Kikyo stared at the pouch in her hand, imagining the pale jewel lying muffled in the velvet.  Even she could feel its call.  _You could be High Miko_, it whispered.  _You are not blinded by prejudices, you deserve to lead the others._ 

            "The prince would have felt the call.  A hanyou in a youkai court," she mused.  "It is not difficult to guess what he would desire."

            The High Miko chuckled.  "I told him the jewel was tied to untainted souls, that a hanyou could not activate its power."

            Kikyo's mouth thinned and she tucked the pouch into the sleeve of her robes.  "And no doubt he is already insecure enough about his worth that he did not question you." 

            "He scowled so hard I thought his face would break," the miko confirmed with a shake of her head.  "And those ridiculous ears drooped right into his hair.  He looked more like a kicked puppy than a demon spawn.  I almost felt sorry for him."

            "Indeed," Kikyo murmured and turned to leave the small room.  She could worry about the prince later.  Right now, the jewel needed to be placed in their highest warded room to both mute its call to warped souls and to guard it from those who answered.

            And immediately afterward, she would visit the shrine's library.  The guileless eyes of the young woman that morning kept floating back into her mind's eye.  There had been no deception there.  And, looking back, she realized what the girl had turned back for.  Not for the prince, but for the jewel caught in his hand.     

            Kikyo would research the demons of the ocean.  If she could find some facts to back up her instincts, the jewel wouldn't remain on land very long.   

            She would find a way to return it to the girl who had saved a drowning man.  Who had protected a self-conscious hanyou on the one night of the month when he was helpless. 

            And the High Miko would be kept blissfully ignorant. 

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A/N: _What?!_  Kikyo's a good guy?  Though I'll bet you guys were screaming for her blood at the beginning of the chapter.  Don't worry, it gets even more complicated.  Notice the distinctions between the use of 'spirit' and 'soul' in this fic so far?  Yeah, there's a difference, and that difference plays a biiiiiig role in this story… like, the entire plot ::laughs:: so pay attention.  And did you catch the giant plot twist?  Second chapter and the situation has already gone fubar.  Except… none of the characters have noticed yet. 


	3. Duty

A/N: Hello all! Yeah, this is a rough-ish version of the chapter. As soon as I get the revisions from Kendiefox, I'll repost this, but I thought I should put _something_ up in the mean time. Seriously, this chapter was supposed to go up so long ago, it's not funny. Still, when you have three betas, you're bound to have scheduling conflicts. So there you have it.

Make sure you go visit the **RKRC Awards** site and participate in the nominations and voting for your favorite Rurouni Kenshin fanfiction from 2003. Here's the site address (take out the spaces) http: tfme. net/ rkrc/ index.php. The **nomination/seconding phase ends Aug 30**, this Monday, and voting starts Sept. 1st. There are still categories that need a few more seconded stories to go to the voting round, so be sure to participate!

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**Without Words:** Duty

Kagome fiddled with the silver comb resting on the vanity with jeweled fingers. Through the mirror she watched Eri and Yuka fuss and giggle over Naoko and Ayumi. Tonight, they would be meeting with the men seeking to court them.

She ran her eyes over her elder sisters and tilted her head slightly. Would their suitors see them as she did?

"Watch them when they don't know you're looking," Yuka advised. "I almost told Mama to accept Lord Ito's petition except I saw him groping one of the servers while I was dancing with Souta." Her face was too round to be anything more than cute, but gentleness radiated from her smiles.

Naoko rolled her eyes. "We'll be fine. Besides, it's not like we have to pick tonight. Mama said there's no rush until we're twenty." She was fine-boned and petite, but had a stare that could intimidate any sea-demon and a stubbornly loyal heart.

"Which is fine for you, but I only have eight months until my birthday." Ayumi frowned and poked through her jewelry chest with long fingers. She was all angles, but beautiful in her austerity. Though she wasn't the eldest, her mind for politics favored her for the throne.

And then there was Eri. Quiet, conciliatory Eri. Without her soothing voice and soulful eyes, the palace would have lain in ruins years ago. Especially since the sisters shared both a common dressing room and black, flowing hair that reached past their hips. Preparing for a ball was like preparing for battle with all the quick tempers and pointy hair ornaments crowded in one room.

Her sisters chattered and a melancholy smile quirked Kagome's mouth. Nervous energy tingled through the water, but she couldn't make herself excited for her two older sisters. She stared at the dainty strings of pearls looped across her chest and felt bare. Three days since she'd lost the jewel and still no hope that it could be retrieved.

Two of her sisters were starting their courting interviews and all she could worry about was miko business.

"Did Mama say you could stay with the miko next week?"

Kagome stirred and turned to meet Naoko's neutral gaze. She nodded.

Ayumi paused in her rummaging and glanced at her younger sister over the rose-veined marble chest. "This is the court's busiest season, Kagome. You shouldn't be skipping out on so many obligations. Why does it have to be now?"

"You don't have to do any dangerous training, do you?" Yuka's hands fluttered around Yuka's twisted and braided hair. "I heard one of the guards saying the demons have been restless. They said they haven't seen them this active since, well..."

Kagome's shoulders stiffened as a beat of silence thrummed between them. Yuka swallowed heavily and forced her hands to her sides. "I mean, she won't make you help get rid of them, will she? I know you've been out with the Guard a few times, but you aren't really trained yet."

The tension eased a fraction and Kagome forced a reassuring smile to her lips. Her father's shadow weighed upon her shoulders like a chain.

"Only if the Guard can't handle it. And besides, she wouldn't let me go alone."

Ayumi hooked a pair of pearls into her ears. Eri said they softened her face. "Mama worries, you know. Even though she told Kaede that you could be trained, she doesn't like that a princess is mixed up in miko business. You have responsibilities in court, and the higher families are beginning to get upset."

"Who cares what those windbags think," Naoko snapped, "I'm a little more worried that my little sister is going to be bitten through by a shark demon." She winced as Eri dug a pin into hair and jerked away to glare at her over her shoulder. Eri bit her lip and shrugged.

"That's exactly what they're worried about," Ayumi insisted, twisting around on her stool to face the room. "They're worried what happened before will happen again. A member of the royal family has no business becoming a miko."

"I didn't choose this," Kagome said to herself quietly in the mirror.

Yuka laid soothing hands on Ayumi's shoulders. "Please, don't talk about that. Not tonight."

"Why not?" Naoko pulled away from Eri and tiny pearls rolled through the water. "We have every right to be worried. That hag is too old to keep anyone safe. How do we know she's really doing a good job training Kagome?" She flung a hand through the water angrily. "I mean, she did such a great job training father, right?"

Kagome shut her eyes. Yuka gasped and Ayumi slammed the lid of her jewelry chest shut. Eri let the pearls she'd collected sink from her hands.

The same argument. They knew exactly which buttons to push until it escalated and someone tore open the old wound.

"For a princess, you lack tact, sister." Ayumi abruptly turned from them to face her mirror and tucked her hands beneath the vanity dresser.

Naoko hissed a breath through her teeth and balled her hands into fists. "For a sister, you lack compassion, _princess_."

"Stop it, both of you," Eri pleaded, gripping one of Naoko's hands between her own. "Mother agreed that it was wrong of grandfather Hiroshi to forbid father from learning how to use his power. That's why Kagome goes to Kaede."

Yuka worried her lower lip with her teeth. "We're just worried about our little sister."

"Kagome knows what she's doing. If she didn't think she could handle something, she would tell Kaede." Eri turned to Naoko at the last.

Naoko glared for a moment, but was the first to look away. "Yeah, but would Kaede listen to her?"

Kagome clenched her hands in her lap. "She's the only one who does."

She hadn't meant it to sound so accusatory. Her older sisters stared at her with stricken expressions and she let her eyes slide to the bare spot on her chest. Honestly, if she wasn't so preoccupied she would have remembered to keep her temper in check. They bickered over her welfare so often that it was pointless to intrude.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything." She pushed away from the vanity and swam toward the door.

"Kagome."

She shook her head without looking back and fled into the hallway. Behind her she heard Ayumi murmur something and Naoko snap in reply. Probably wondering if she would show up to the ball, which was silly. She'd already given her mother her word.

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Peach shadows ghosted over Kagome's skin as Houjo, a minor Lord's son, moved her through the precise turns and dips of the dance. She tipped her face to the high-domed, coral ceiling of the ballroom and let out a small sigh. If she'd been any less conscience-driven, she would have used the excuse of sulking over the fight with her sisters to have skipped out of the ball three hours ago. Staring at the plankton floating through her room was more interesting than sharing dance after dance with Houjo.

"Are you having fun, Princess?" His eyes disappeared beneath the pleasant smile on his face. He asked after every dance and she always gave the same, polite answer.

"Of course, Lord Houjo." He never wondered why he was the only one to ask her to dance, or why they were never jostled by the rest of the crowd.

"I'm glad. I hear from my father that you're spending more and more time with the miko. You must be exhausted from all of your training."

Her eyebrow arched. Boring he could be, and he was certainly oblivious, but sometimes he surprised her with a bit of insight.

"Yes, I'm learning a lot of defensive spells right now." She warmed to the subject and a genuine smile lit her face. "I'm not very good yet, but my offense is improving. Kaede says I might be able to start helping the Guard within the next year."

He tilted his head to the side and grinned. "Why would you want to do that?"

She blinked and barely noticed when he began guiding her through the motions of the next dance. "Because I can. Mikos are very rare, only one or two every generation, so I have a responsibility."

His brows drew together in confusion. "But you don't have to be a miko, right? My father says if the miko hadn't forced the Queen to let you start training, you would have been a normal princess."

Pain clenched her chest and she had to fight to keep the smile on her face gentle. It wasn't his fault, after all. "No, Houjo. That's not now it works." She broke from their dance and offered him an apologetic smile. "Please excuse me, I need to go speak with my mother."

The good-natured grin resurfaced on his face and he waved cheerfully after her. "Are you going to sing for us tonight?"

Another wince. "No promises."

She turned and swam through the pathway that automatically cleared for her as she glided through the dancers. They did the same thing for her sisters whenever they moved. The disapproval and wariness that radiated from their eyes and mouths trailed after her like a murky cloud. Her sisters didn't share that privilege.

The throne was raised on an artful spill of coral and shells at the head of the ballroom. Sinuous curves of marble and whale bones rose from the heap and arched to frame the monarch's head like a crown. The Queen spent most of her time perched on the edge of the seat, entertaining well-wishers and friends in the court.

She looked up and extended a hand as Kagome approached. The young couple she had been talking to turned with their Queen's attention. Kagome ignored the veiled curiosity and wariness on their faces as they hastily excused themselves and melted back into the crowd. It wasn't who she was so much as what they thought she would become.

"I see you were dancing with that Houjo boy again," her mother greeted as she squeezed her hand and pulled her forward to settle on the small stool extending from the right of the throne.

"Yes," but only because he was the only noble clueless enough to her position that would.

Her mother beamed and smoothed a strand of hair from her face. "At this rate, you'll be married even before Yuka. Souta's parents are driving me insane with all their requests for 'urgent audiences' to plan the ceremony."

Kagome considered her mother for a moment. "You want me to get married?"

"Well, if you're taken with Houjo, why not? He seems very understanding about your business as a miko and I'm sure Kaede wouldn't object. He seems very amiable."

_What he _is, _is very boring, _Kagome mused as she favored her mother with a small smile. She had no intentions of marrying Houjo. Really, she had no intentions of marrying anyone. That her mother probably wouldn't object to that said a lot about her position in court.

"When are you going to Kaede's?"

"In the morning."

"You'll be back in exactly a week?" Her mother smiled brightly over the crowd as she murmured to her. Kagome didn't have to check to know she was smiling just as dazzlingly. The crowd of flirting nobles was a warm, glittering murmur before them, splashed across the combed sand of the ballroom.

"Most likely. We're doing some research on the Shikon no Tama." Her mother hadn't noticed the jewel's absence, but her sisters had. She'd counted on that and come up with a likely sounding excuse to keep their suspicions down. They wouldn't like knowing their baby sister was ghosting the Shihai no Inu kingdom's coastline to try and catch a glimpse of their prince. She'd already had one close call when she'd gotten close enough for one of the guards to smell her.

Her mother sighed. "Well, try to be back as soon as you can. I know how important the jewel is, or I wouldn't let you hide away for so long. You are a princess first, a miko second."

Kagome's smile thinned. According to Kaede, it was the opposite, and Kagome couldn't help but agree. And considering that her mother had already mentioned redecorating the miko's wing of the palace for her, the comment was rather hypocritical.

Guilt tugged at her and she swallowed her annoyance. Her mother's life hadn't been any easier than her own was shaping out to be. When grandfather Hiroshi had died, her parents had already been married for over a decade and her grandmother had passed the throne to her only son. Her mother hadn't had that option when her husband had lost himself in the demon raids ten years ago. With five children, the eldest barely ten, her mother had had the fate of the merkingdom placed upon her shoulders.

Kagome folded her fingers into her mother's hand. "When I get back, do you want to start drawing plans for the miko rooms?"

Her mother turned to her fully and a surprised smile tugged her lips. "That sounds wonderful. I can let Father and your grandmother deal with court business for a day without everything falling apart. I'm glad you'll want to stay in the palace. Those rooms haven't been used since before your late grandfather's time."

Kagome snorted. "Kaede enjoys her privacy and so did her mentor, from what she tells me. Of course, they didn't have their entire family living in the palace, either."

"I've always liked Kaede." Her mother sighed and her gaze turned inward. "If things had been different... maybe I would have been more persuasive about having her move into the palace." She stared blankly for a moment before focusing back on Kagome and smiling. "It would have saved you from having to swim so far every day."

She shrugged, feeling a little of her melancholy drift away. Her mother loved her, she knew, but saw a little too much of her husband in her youngest daughter for them to have an easy relationship. Kagome wondered if her mother had ever forgiven her husband for rushing to help the Guard when he'd never been allowed any combat training. Kaede had made her only visit to the palace shortly after that day.

_"I told your mother that if she loved her family, she wouldn't let the same fate befall her daughter that had befallen her husband. I wanted to take you that very day and raise you as my apprentice, but she wouldn't completely give you up. So we compromised and that is how you are laden with two sets of responsibilities."_

Kagome mused over memories and let the pleasant babble of the ball wash over her. From this distance, the court wasn't so bad. She could almost pretend that her isolation was temporary, that she was watching from the sidelines by choice.

Her mother hummed lightly under her breath and gave her hand a squeeze. "Since you're going to be gone, would you sing for us tonight?"

Kagome closed her eyes and let out an imperceptible sigh. She loved to sing, but... "For the court?" she asked quietly. Even singing in front of her family was awkward.

"Of course," she chuckled. "I keep telling you, it would be terrible of me to horde the sweetest voice in the kingdom only for the family."

"They don't want to hear me sing."

Her mother's laugh was like jewels tumbling over a reef. "Kagome, I can't count how many times people have asked me why you don't become a performer instead of a miko."

She fought to keep her hand in her mother's relaxed. "I'm a singer, not a performer."

"What's the difference?" She smoothed her hand down her arm. "Please, sweetheart? You're their princess."

Kagome clenched her jaw against the jellyfish wriggling up her throat and nodded jerkily.

The court fell into an expectant hush as she moved to the raised platform where the musicians played. She murmured her request to the conductor and he bowed. The face she turned to the audience was calm, but inside she quailed beneath so many sets of eyes. She could deal with their stares and whispers when they were reviling her training, but not when she sang.

She worked her tongue in her dry mouth and swallowed heavily. Since she'd turned eight and her mother had discovered she could carry a pleasant melody, she'd been thrust on this stage. Every time she vowed to tell her mother never again, and every time she bowed to the Queen's request.

The opening bars of the piece floated to her ears and she closed her eyes. She imagined the cold rush of air against her face and a warm weight pillowed on her chest. She laced her fingers before her and imagined they were tangled in thick, damp hair.

The notes drifted from her tongue and wove through the audience like a warm current. She watched their faces relax and the wariness seep from their eyes as they watched her sing. For the few minutes of a song, they would lay aside their distrust and suspicions and praise their luck at having such a princess.

She clenched her eyes shut and sang the rest of the song blind.

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Dawn stretched warm fingers over her back, warming skin chilled from a long night spent skulking. Kagome frowned at the term. It sounded oily. Still, she couldn't think of a more accurate description for her recent assignment. Given a choice, she would rather be helping the merkingdom's guards quell the recent restlessness in the demon community. Watching the same three mile coast line for hours on end, while marginally safer, was boring to the point of making her scales flake.

"Come on, little prince. You have to come out of there some time." She scowled at the upper stories of the castle that hunkered on the cliff above her. Since it was still early, she was perched atop one of the many rocks littering the cove's waters. A modest beach nestled at the base of the high, wind-blasted cliff that sported the Shihai no Inu kingdom's stronghold. Snaking up the side of the rock was a stone-carved staircase with a sturdy railing mounted into the cliff-side. Kagome would have found the landscape romantic if it weren't for her growing frustration with the hanyou prince that lived behind the narrow windows and thick walls of the castle.

She thumped her tail agitatedly against her rock and folded her arms beneath her breasts. "Coward. One little storm and you refuse to even look at the ocean. Your soldiers are starting rumors about it down at the docks, you know. If you're not careful, your reputation is going to get even worse." It probably wasn't a healthy occupation, spitting insults at a man hundreds of yards distant and cloaked in stone, but one that Kagome had taken up in the last few days. She needed to find him, to talk to him. Relaying a message to him through one of the guards that patrolled the coastline wasn't an option. The soldier who had scented her had gone stiff and immediately alerted his group. Luckily, she'd been low enough in the water to duck without being seen, because they hadn't looked like the type to ask questions first.

That brought her back to her second largest problem, the one beyond getting the prince close enough to talk to. What would she do when she had him? Over the days she'd rehearsed several speeches focused on appealing to their kindred alienation and the fact that she'd saved his life. She wondered which to favor. From the little she'd seen of him, he looked to have a lot of pride. Playing to either sympathy might put him off. It was that uncertainty more than anything that made her antsy.

"This isn't working and it's not going to work," she concluded to the quiet morning air. She needed a different plan, another way of getting close to him. More importantly, she needed to confront him in a form he wouldn't take a spear to.

Each time she returned empty handed, Kaede grew more agitated. Kagome knew she was hiding something from her, but not what. What _was_ clear was that the situation was becoming more serious with each day. The jewel needed to be retrieved, and soon.

With a shake of her head, Kagome slid off the rock and began navigating through the shallow water out to sea. She wouldn't bother following the coast farther east where the cliffs sloped down into an older cove swollen with docks and a small village. He wouldn't be there, just as he hadn't been. The little bit of information she'd gleaned before almost being discovered told her that much. The prince was spooked and, short of going in after him, she wasn't going to be able to get the jewel back.

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"Any luck, child?" Kaede even had the grace to keep her face hopeful as she asked. The effort was wasted on Kagome. She simply shook her head and drifted toward the back wall of the miko's cave to run her eyes idly over her collection of medicines and potions.

"I see." Kagome didn't have to look at her to know she had closed her good eye and had thinned her lips. "I have dreaded a day that something like this would occur."

Kagome did look at her then. "What? Are you saying you knew I would lose the jewel?"

The older miko folded her hands on her lap and shook her head. "Not so specifically, no. The jewel is drawn to the land, though, back to its home. It is there that souls walk, after all. It must feel deserted residing so far below the waves among spirits that are mute and deaf to its powers."

Kagome's eyes narrowed. "So, what, the jewel hatched a diabolical scheme to get me to save the prince so it could escape back to land?"

Kaede stared at her for a beat before glaring. "The point is, I wasn't surprised when the jewel ended up back in the hands of the land-walkers. I just wasn't expecting it to happen at such a crucial time."

"What do you mean?"

Kaede sighed and gestured to her miko pool. Kagome drifted over and waited patiently for the image to shift into focus.

"This is an image I saved from earlier, but you could probably find him there even now. He has visited all the shrine libraries of his own country, now he moves on to his neighbor's."

Kagome dimly heard Kaede's words over the growing roar of panic building in her. It was the same man from before. His curly head was bent intently over crumbling scrolls that he leafed through with slender, pale fingers. She could feel the force of his power radiate from the glass.

"The picture," she whispered, staring at the book, "is that the jewel?"

"Yes."

The word settled between them as they watched the demon study the image of the armored, faceless miko holding a glowing jewel before the gaping hole in her chest.

"What does it say?" Kagome demanded. Her fingernails dug into the flesh of her palms.

"I should have started teaching you their written language earlier," the older miko groused.

"Kaede!"

"Peace, child. In this, at least, we are lucky. The text is very vague, not even naming Midoriko as the miko who gave her soul for her people. And, as far as how the jewel's powers are unlocked, they are as ignorant as we are. That is knowledge lost forever, I hope."

Kagome relaxed for a moment before sitting straight again. "But he might figure it out. If he finds the jewel, there's no guarantee he wouldn't."

"No, there isn't. But he is in a kingdom far from your hanyou prince. He is gaining power swiftly, but he is still no threat to the Shihai no Inu kingdom. The jewel is safe, for now." Kaede wiped the glass clean and sat back on her stool with a sigh.

Kagome stared at the clear pool and saw the miko bearing down on her with the bow and arrow once again. At the time, she had panicked, losing the jewel as surely as if she'd shattered it and scattered the pieces into a fathomless trench. Now, she was frighteningly clear-headed as her mind worked over the possibilities.

"Kaede," she called softly.

The elder miko roused from her own musings and fixed her one good eye on her.

"The prince can change shape and become human when the moon is dark." Her hands smoothed over the silvery scales of her hips.

Kaede stared at her hard and nodded.

"Is there some way that I could become human?" She met her mentor's gaze and held it. Her terror was a distant voice pounding against a door she'd firmly closed in the back of her mind. She had to ask. If there was a way to get the jewel back, she had to try. The choice had been made the moment she'd swum away and left her duty lying in the palm of a stranger.

Kaede's face darkened and the edges of her mouth sank until they were lost amid the creases of her cheeks.

"I forbid it."

Kagome blinked. "You mean there is a way?" Her fears wailed faintly, but she brushed them aside with the sweep of her hands across the scales of her lap.

"Not one that I will allow you to use," Kaede snapped and pushed away from the low stool with a furious swipe of her tail.

"Why not?" She forced her hands to her sides and flitted after Kaede.

"Because the price of doing such magic is too much." She pulled hunks of brightly colored seaweed from a basket and began bundling them together with sharp swipes of her hands.

Kagome studied her profile and found fear and sorrow lurking behind her mentor's schooled expression.

Her heart started beating too hard. "What price?"

"It is of no concern to you. Changing was forbidden when the jewel was handed to our care thousands of years ago. We were meant to fall into obscurity, and that is where we will stay."

Kagome's eyes widened and a bit of her terror moved aside to make room for curiosity. She crouched beside her mentor and covered her hands to still them.

"You mean we let the land-walkers forget about us? That's why they can't tell us from the other sea-demons anymore?"

Kaede glared at her for a moment before closing her eye and taking a soothing breath.

"Kaede, the prince won't come to me. Even if he did, he would probably try to kill me before I could ask him about the jewel. The only way to get the jewel back is to go in after him in a familiar form. That youkai knows about the jewel, and you've seen him several times in your pool. He's dangerous." She shrugged. "Even I can feel that, and I'm not fully trained. If the ancestors forbade us from changing to protect the jewel, then it must be alright to change if it's to keep it from him."

Kaede opened her eye and searched over her face. "Kagome, you do not know what you are asking of yourself."

She squeezed her hands lightly. "Then tell me. Whatever you say, it won't change my mind. I have to get the jewel back. It's my fault that it's up there, because I couldn't protect it."

Kaede searched her face before silently moving to the highest shelf on the back wall and pulling down a thin sheet of discolored silver. She returned to the stool and handed the sheet to Kagome.

She turned it over in her hand and found a spell neatly impressed into the metal in the mermaids' spidery script.

"Conversion of the spirit." She skimmed over the words and felt her throat tighten. "It would turn my spirit into a soul?"

Kaede nodded. "Though our physical forms are similar to the land-walkers, we differ in our spiritual. To sustain a human body, you would need to trade your spirit for a soul."

"But that's impossible," she protested as she reread the words and tried to make sense of them.

"No, it is quite possible if you have a blueprint. We live our three hundred years because our spirits constantly renew our life force with every breath. By bonding with a soul, and with this spell, that renewing energy can be turned to generating a soul by mimicking the pattern of the bonded soul."

"What kind of bond?"

"Love. A strong love that would turn the soul-bearer's eyes from all others and only to you." Kaede sighed and took the plate back from Kagome's limp fingers. "Which is a very rare occurrence. That is why there is a smaller spell that can sustain the spirit within in a human body when a mermaid takes that form."

"Then why did you show me this?" Kagome waved a hand at the spell in Kaede's hands.

"Because, child, the spell that lets us change freely between forms was destroyed. I can make you human, but human you would remain until death. And beyond the two months the charm would last, your only hope of living would be binding to a land-walker."

Kagome's chest began to ache and belatedly she remembered to suck in a new breath. She would pay dearly for her mistake, it seemed.

"Do you see why I am reluctant to agree with you?" Her mentor set the sheet of silver on the nearest shelf and tucked her hands over her arms. "You would be lost to us forever, Kagome. The jewel is important, but not worth your life."

She shook her head. "Kaede, I already told you I was going to do this. My life is important, but I cannot let my mistake create a war when I can prevent it." She forced a smile to her face. "Besides, you said I could live as a human if I fall in love. It's not a guarantee, but it's better than nothing."

Kaede scowled at her. "Have you no respect for your own life? Or at least for the feelings of your family and kingdom? Your mother could not stand losing another in such a way."

"I can't help being who I am." She sighed and favored her mentor with a tired smile. "You should know better than anyone why I have to do this. I am a princess, but I am also a miko. And, as far as princesses go, I'm not a very good one. I have a larger responsibility to the jewel."

"And where would that leave me?" Kaede thumped her tail angrily. "You are my only apprentice, Kagome, and I am an old woman."

"Hanako is four already, you could begin the basic teachings within a few years. She is from a family not tied to the court, so you would not have the same time limitations that you've had with me. She could learn everything I have and more before she is eleven. And you know you are too stubborn to let go when you still have work to do."

Kaede glared at her for a minute and then tucked her chin to her chest and began to meditate.

Kagome leaned back in surprise. Her mentor only meditated to balance her mood when Kagome really irritated her. Or when she accidentally broke priceless artifacts and jars of medicine. She'd gone through a lanky stage at thirteen.

Her tail had started to fall asleep when Kaede finally sighed and lifted her head.

"I do not agree with you, Kagome," she pronounced. "Let the land-walkers stew in whatever mess they create for themselves with the power of the jewel. You are too important to too many people to sacrifice for the sake of something so silly."

"Kaede," she began to protest, but shut her mouth when her mentor put up a hand.

"However," she said quietly, "As a miko, and your mentor, I realize that you are bound both by your responsibility to the jewel and your duty as a miko to take this task. The lives of thousands depend on the jewel returning to our hands where it will remain mute."

"Thank you, Kaede." She tucked her hands together in her lap and sternly ordered them to stop quivering.

"With that decided, there is one more thing I must tell you before you can make your choice."

She frowned. "I already have."

Kaede shushed her. "You do not know the price of the magic I must use to make you human."

The jellyfish had returned to her stomach and she squirmed impatiently on her seat. "Whatever it is, fine."

"Impetuous," Kaede snapped and then took a soothing breath. "To gain one thing, something else must be given up. That is the first rule of magic."

Kagome nodded and balled her hands into fists.

"A mermaid on land is a cripple. To gain legs means that the handicap must manifest in some other form. The old spell was able to sidestep this part, but we are not so lucky."

"So you mean I'd have to give up my arms, or something?" She could cheerfully throttle her ancestors for making this so difficult. Their caution for the jewel so long ago had made it nearly impossible to rescue it today.

"That is too simple. The price of gaining mobility on land is giving up a sense. Specifically, one of the three we use most to communicate: sight, speech, and sound." Kaede met her gaze and held it. "Regaining the jewel will still be a challenge. No matter what you decide to give up, you will be at a disadvantage. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Kagome turned the idea over in her head for a moment before shoving everything out of her mind and nodding sharply. If she thought about it too much, she would be paralyzed by the fear she could feel building at the edges of her consciousness. Once the jewel was safe, she could bemoan the colossal mess her life had turned into because of one good deed.

"I'm going to get the jewel back." A vision of the bedraggled prince as he lay on the beach filled her mind and a peculiar emotion welled within her. She tried to squash it, but it welled over her in waves of bitterness. If she hadn't saved his life, she could have kept hers.

"What are you thinking, child?" Kaede placed a hand on her shoulder and she jerked.

"Nothing, Kaede." She closed her eyes and worked to push the irrational emotions aside. It wasn't his fault. She had made the choice that night to save him, and she wouldn't trade his life for the jewel now even if she were handed the choice. How could she live with herself knowing she had put her life above another's? That empathy was what had driven her to this decision in the first place.

Still... even though she couldn't blame him, she didn't know how happy she would be to see his face again.

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Yikes, this doesn't sound so good for Inu-Yasha. And just what has that boy been up to this past week or so? We shall see. Remember, if you have any questions about the story, email me or leave them in a review and I'll try to answer them in updates and/or emails... that is, if they aren't answers that will ruin the plot for you ::laughs::


	4. Pain

A/N: Hey all. Sorry for the long delay, but there were a plethora of communication difficulties between the esteemed betas and myself. Next chapter should be up in a more timely manner.

**Story Note that you should probably read**: So, as Caeria has pointed out, there are some cultural things that I might want to clear up. "Without Words" is set in a fantasy world that is heavily influenced by the Japanese feudal era that the original Inu-Yasha series is based in. You'll notice this even more in the next chapter when we see glances of the language as Kagome is learning it, but more on that later. So, bear with me on clothing and castle design, and such. It's all very similar, but not... like how the doctor in this chapter has pockets in his robes... that's a more modern touch, I think. I file it all under the all-useful phrase of "Author Privilege," which basically means I get to make crap up as it suits/fits my master plan ::laughs::

**Disclaimer: **I so don't own Inu-Yasha.

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**Without Words: **Pain

Kagome watched the coming dawn spread tendrils of pearl and fire across the smooth ripples of the ocean. Her tail glistened against the pale sand of the beach like her scales were really the diamonds and emeralds in her mother's wedding chest.

She rolled the warm vial in her hand and tried to imagine what her family would do in four days when she didn't return from her stay with Kaede. Naoko would have a fit and probably accuse the miko of forcing Kagome into leaving. Yuka would cry, Ayame would fret over how to inform the court, and Eri would swim herself into the sand trying to keep peace between them all.

She didn't think about how her mother would react. If she did, she might lose her conviction and sacrifice thousands for the sake of keeping one woman from a second heartbreak.

In the end, she'd decided to give up her voice. A person learned more by listening than speaking, especially in the halls and niches of a palace, and she couldn't risk being in the same room as the jewel and not being able to see it. With her spiritual powers so wrapped up in keeping her alive, her miko senses would be nonexistent. If it weren't for that, within such a close range she could have followed the minds-eye sparkle of the jewel to its location blind, deaf, and mute.

Kaede had assured her that learning to write and read the land-walker's language wouldn't be too difficult if she could convince someone to teach her. The script of the mermaids was essentially the same, but stripped down to plain lines and angles that were easier to carve and press. Being mute was a handicap, but one that she could cope with.

The first few notes of a song trickled off her lips as she rubbed her thumb over the stopper of the vial hard enough to turn her knuckle white.

She'd come to the beach with the moon still bright, half its face glittering off the wet sand. Then, the waves had lapped at her tail, but now had abandoned her to follow the tug of the moon as it set.

The guard had passed high above her head several times during the night, but hadn't noticed her. They didn't stray close enough to the cliff's edge to see her and the wind had been blowing out over the ocean all night. Still, she could feel the salty nip of an ocean breeze as the new day brought a change of wind. If she didn't hurry, they would catch her scent.

She dragged her eyes away from the lulling roll of the ocean and stared at the potion lying in the palm of her hand. The liquid in the vial was a dull, ruby color that glowed faintly in the pre-dawn gloom. Kaede had warned that, while it would be tasteless and painless going down, the spell would trigger almost instantly.

Again her gaze was drawn back to the sea. If she stared hard enough, maybe she could see all the way down to the merkingdom where her family still slept. Her mother would awaken soon and go over the day's agenda with Kagome's grandfather and the former queen over a light breakfast. Her sisters would arise soon thereafter. Naoko and Ayame would accompany their mother to her meetings and audiences, learning the royal trade by observation and experience. Yuka was in the middle of wedding preparations and was excused from these lessons. She would probably be entertaining her future in-laws all day. Eri had a year of basic schooling left before she would join her elder sisters in their shadowing and would be stuck with the royal tutor until late afternoon.

Kagome belatedly realized that she would never get to finish her studies.

She placed the thought aside with the rest of her misgivings and let the comfortable numb feeling that had set in late last night drape back over her shoulders. No time to grieve over something that couldn't be helped.

The sun was rising.

A smart pop punctuated the shallow rhythm of her breath as the stopper pulled free from the mouth of the vial. Kagome swirled the liquid gently and noted how badly the color clashed with the iridescent hues of her scales. She held it before her and caught a last glimpse of the ocean painted over in shades of red.

"I'm sorry."

She held her breath and tipped the spell into her mouth.

Her throat seized and she clutched at it with a startled gurgle. Pain lanced through her vocal chords and they swelled until she could barely breathe. A scream of panic bubbled up and popped silently in her mouth. She could taste blood. Her back arched tight enough to break as an invisible knife was drawn down her spine and ruthlessly ripped through her tail. Her mouth gaped in silent screams and she writhed on the sand as bones shattered and realigned themselves and scales melted into jelly. Suddenly there wasn't just one limb flopping helplessly on the sand, but two.

Her spirit shuddered and then folded in on itself, leaving her deaf and blind. Blackness closed over her eyes even as they continued to stare wide and sightless at the cliff face towering above her.

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Inu-Yasha glared at the door to his room from his perch on the window seat. All that kept him in the room, trapped with his boredom, was that measly slab of wood and a few snarled words from his father. For a week he'd been confined to his rooms, and right now even the wrath of the king didn't seem like much a price if it meant he could taste a bit of freedom.

"Keh, like anyone could really kill me," he muttered and tucked his chin to his chest. The only reason he'd stayed this long was that, despite his bravado, someone almost had.

He'd run from the shrine across two countries to get back to his father's kingdom. When he'd arrived, the castle doctor, Miroku, and Sango had all berated him for his foolishness. Even a hanyou wasn't immune to a concussion, apparently. That he'd lived through the night without drowning had amazed everyone. He'd scoffed and brayed about his strength enough to give a good show, but secretly he thanked whatever sea spirit had seen fit to steer his sorry, human hide to that beach shore. And if that miko hadn't taken pity on him, he could have been purified seven ways before he'd regained consciousness.

He'd thought he was fine, but apparently running for almost twelve hours through rough country with a head injury wasn't good-patient behavior. The doctor had condemned him to two full days of bed-rest. Only, when he'd opened the door on the third morning after his return, he'd found Sango and Miroku blocking his way.

"My Lord, it appears the rope of your safety line had been tampered with," Miroku had informed him when they'd pushed him back into the room.

Sango had nodded. "The king has ordered us to make a discreet investigation, and you are to remain within your rooms until we're finished. Besides the king, we're the only members of the staff who know. He doesn't want the assassins to get spooked and go into hiding."

"Bullshit, he just doesn't want a scandal."

"Nevertheless, it would be wiser not to let on that we are aware of the plot on your life," Miroku had soothed.

Inu-Yasha shook his head and stared longingly at the edge of the cliff that dropped to his mother's beach. In five days, his bodyguards weren't any closer to finding out who had arranged for the "accident" on the ship. The problem wasn't a lack of suspects, but that the entire court was under suspicion.

He shifted his shoulders and stifled a growl. To him, this latest threat wasn't anything to get excited about. The court made no secret of their disgust of his mixed heritage, even though his parents' marriage had originally been to foster more amiable ties between Shihai no Inu and its neighboring, human-ruled kingdom.

When he'd been a child, Inu-Yasha's father had defended him and praised him as being a link toward progressive relations between the two races. Then, his fragile, beautiful wife had died and he'd lost his inspiration for the uphill battle. Now, when he remembered, the king tried to find ways of gently extracting his problematic son from the country. Twice in the last three nights he'd popped into Inu-Yasha's room to express his delight in how well Princess So-And-So was growing up, and "what a fine young lady" Whats-Her-Name was shaping out to be, and wouldn't he like to leave and start governing a kingdom of his own?

Inu-Yasha sucked in a weary breath and thought he could still smell his father's comfortable, musky scent as if he were standing right beside him.

He hadn't been within arm's reach of his father since before his mother had finally become too weak to leave her bed.

He growled low in his chest and flipped the latch to his window open. A few graceful leaps later, he was standing just outside the castle walls and staring over the grassy lawn that stretched to the cliff's edge. When he'd been a boy, the rough-hewn steps that wound down to the beach had been too steep for his runty legs. Now, he usually didn't bother with them at all.

A deep breath of the sea breeze chased lingering memories from his mind and nose. He sighed and gathered himself for the sprint to the ledge when he registered a different, subtle flavor to the breeze. He tensed and lifted his face to catch the wind, his ears flicking forward sharply.

There was someone down there.

He took a stiff step forward and paused again, resisting the urge to whine in frustration. A human, and female, but... there was something odd about her scent. Something almost familiar...

"Keh," he spat and sprinted to the edge. He peered down and caught a glimpse of pale skin and waves of black hair before jumping down and landing lightly in the sand behind her.

"Wha-?" He stumbled back a step and color tinged his cheeks. Not only was she unconscious and bedraggled looking, but she was also completely naked.

Anger stirred in him. How dare this wench disturb this place? Even the Guard weren't allowed to do more than make a cursory glance over the ledge to make sure there were no trespassers.

"And what a damn good job they're doing," he snarled darkly and crouched down next to the girl.

Pale, pretty face, absurdly long black hair, slender limbs, modestly curvy build.

"What the fuck are you doing on my beach?" He nudged her shoulder with the back of his hand and scowled. He'd never seen her before, but there was something vaguely familiar about her.

His ears snapped forward. "She looks like that miko." Suddenly he found himself reassessing her in a less harsh light.

Pale and pretty, but with dark circles under her eyes and black hair that was matted with sand and seaweed. Her arms and legs were twisted oddly, like someone had just tossed her to the ground, and there were tiny cuts and bruises marring her clammy skin.

His eyebrows rose. "What the hell happened to you?"

He shrugged out of his outer robe and draped it over her body. Whatever had happened, it hadn't been pleasant. In fact, she looked like she'd just washed up onto shore.

His ears drooped slightly and his mouth flattened into a thin line. Empathy welled up in his chest and he recalled the stark beauty of the miko's face as she'd stared at him from across the beach. If a miko could take pity on a half-breed like him, surely he could show a little compassion for this half-drowned girl.

Mindful of his claws, he placed a hand on either shoulder and gently shook her.

"Hey, wench, wake up. You're trespassing."

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Half-formed figures swirled before her like dancers in a ballroom. Tiny lights pricked the darkness and her eyes with colors that bled like watching the fireworks from under the waves. There was a distant roar that washed out the noise and jumbled the words of the person speaking to her.

Kagome rolled her head, trying to shake the seaweed stuffed into it so she could focus on the words being spoken to her. There was a gnawing ache inside where the gentle hum of her miko powers usually warmed her. She sifted through herself sluggishly, trying to find where she'd misplaced her spirit.

"-aid wake up!"

A shadow passed over her eyes and it was only then that she realized there was light around her. Her mind pushed her disorientation aside and she felt the world start to make sense again.

She sucked in a deep breath and smelled the sea, heard it lapping at the shore. The sun had risen and was warm on her skin, which was stiff with brine and sand. And there was someone talking to her.

"I know you're awake, so why don't you just open your eyes and get it over with?"

She obeyed without thinking, snapping her eyes open to stare into the face of the man crouched next to her. Her eyebrows drew down slightly and then shot back up. The prince! Panic had her pushing away from him with her arms before her brain could catch up. She twisted her tail to push against the sand and froze.

"Shit, calm down," the prince grouched. "I'm not gonna kill you just for trespassing. I mean, I could, but I know you probably didn't mean to... Hey, are you listening to me?"

Kagome tore her eyes away from the awkward angles and sickly pale skin of the new limbs growing from her body to stare at him blindly. Tears welled in her eyes.

His eyes widened and his ears snapped forward. He raised an arm in front of him as if to ward her off. "Hey, don't cry. I know you didn't mean to, so I'm being lenient. So did you fall off a boat, or what?"

Her eyes wandered over his face while she extended invisible fingers to feel his aura.

Nothing. It was like someone had filled her head with sand. The world around her lacked the colors and flavors of energy that were once so thick she could taste them on the back of her tongue. She couldn't even tell which way was north. The subliminal tingle that kept her oriented was gone.

The spell had gutted her.

A clawed hand waving before her face brought her out of herself. She stared listlessly at the prince and wished he would leave her alone so she could curl up and let the waves dissolve her.

"Hey, bitch, I'm trying to help you here. Are you deaf or just stupid?" He spat the words out like looking at her left a sour taste in his mouth.

Something in the tone of his voice snaked up her spine like an eel. Her vision focused sharply and for the first time since she'd left him unconscious and vulnerable on the shore, she looked at the prince.

Her eyes narrowed and her mouth pinched into a small frown. This was the man she'd risked her life for? His words filtered to the forefront of her memory and her scowl deepened. She'd known he was crude from what she'd seen of him on the ship, but she hadn't picked up on the 'callous jerk' flavor.

"You gonna say something, or what?" He crossed his arms over his chest and jerked his chin up.

'Would it be too much to show a little compassion?'

Her heart thumped painfully in her chest and suddenly she couldn't seem to pull in a deep enough breath. A hand flew to her throat and clutched at it hard enough to bruise. She'd forgotten. On top of everything else, she'd lost this as well.

Inu-Yasha eyed her uneasily. "Hey, what's your problem?"

She blinked back her tears and clung desperately to her anger. She jabbed a finger at her throat and slowly mouthed each word so he would understand.

'I can't speak.'

His ears flicked madly on top of his head and he leaned forward with a thoughtful frown. "Hey, speak up, wench. I can't hear a damn word you're saying."

A frustrated scream welled up in her, partly at his idiocy, but mostly for herself. She pushed it out of her throat and between her lips, her lungs compressing sharply with the effort.

The faint 'shh' sound of rushing air was all the fury she could express. Her anger left her in a breath. Too much. She slumped forward with a silent sob and buried her face in her hands. It was all too much for her right now.

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Inu-Yasha blinked at the crying girl sitting before him and resisted the urge to scratch his head in confusion. What was her problem? She was acting like someone had just told her she'd lost everything, not just her voice.

He considered that idea as he watched her, his arms draped uselessly in his lap. Maybe she had. She certainly looked like a castaway from some shipwreck. That she'd apparently lost her voice meant trauma, physical and mental. Rin hadn't spoken for months after she'd been found ravaged by wolves at the kingdom's border.

Inu-Yasha tried to remember what his brother had done to get her to speak again and realized he hadn't paid enough attention to know. He sighed and decided to handle this problem in small steps.

First, "Hey, just calm down. I'll take you to Old Myouga and the Doc and they can look at your throat, alright?"

His ears perked when she shot him a startled glance from above her hands. Her mouth was gaping like a fish and she looked like hell, but at least she'd stopped crying for the moment.

Now for another basic; he gestured at the robe crumpled and forgotten in her lap. "Put that on and I'll take you up to the palace."

She followed the angle of his finger and stared at the clothing like she'd never seen anything like it before. Hesitant fingers plucked at the thick fabric and she glanced at him again questioningly.

"Yeah, it's mine. Just put it on."

The transformation was instantaneous. The haunted look in her eyes retreated to make way for a cautious smile. He shifted his shoulders self-consciously. Keh, it was just a robe.

She pulled the cloth from her lap and shook it out so she could look at it. She looked at him again and then slipped her arms into the sleeves with slow, awkward movements. He watched her fumble with the ties for a moment before sighing and scooting closer to her to reach for them himself. Commoners didn't always know what to do with the intricate ties of court clothes.

Her cheeks pinked as he tucked the folds around her snugly and secured them. The thing fit her almost like a dress. He glanced at her face as he leaned back and huge blue-gray eyes met his own for a long moment.

"I got something on my face?"

The barely formed smile on her face shot down into a frown and she huffed an annoyed sigh at him. He got the feeling that he'd just killed a recovering opinion she'd had of him. Whatever.

He rose to his feet and jerked his head at the stairs. "Come on, I've got stuff to do."

She spared him a weary look before concentrating on gathering her feet under her. Her arms wavered at her sides as she pushed herself up, her face serious and focused. His eyebrows rose at the unusual effort, but he didn't comment. Maybe she'd knocked her head on a rock when she'd washed up.

He was about to snap an impatient 'hurry up' when she took a stumbling step forward. Her face crumpled in pain and her knees folded under her. He had an arm out to catch her before he even thought about it. She clutched at his sleeve and looked up at him with lost eyes.

He sighed and quickly scooped her up into his arms. "Probably a sprained ankle," he muttered at her. "You're more trouble than you're worth-OW!" He jerked his head away and stared at her in surprise as she withdrew her hand from a forelock of his hair. Her face was suspiciously bland as she waved a hand at the stairs.

"Damn bitch."

She got another yelp out of him as he began leaping back up the cliff. He'd have taken the stairs to avoid scaring her, but dumping her in someone else's hands as soon as possible seemed like a better way to keep his hair on his head.

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Kikyo turned from the sight of the rising sun with a faint sigh and began walking back up the beach to the winding slope that led to the shrine. The other girls would be coming down soon to say morning prayers and to meditate and she didn't want to disrupt their concentration with her unsettled soul. With the turmoil of the last few days, they needed all the solace they could gather.

A full week since the strange girl had unwittingly released the disaster of the jewel upon their shores. Research had revealed little about the relic's powers or properties. What the monks and mikos of the shrine and its neighbors had found had been informative, but not very useful.

It was formed during the Race Wars thousands of years ago when the humans had asserted their dominion against the encroaching powers of the youkai. Back then, mikos had been more than just spiritual leaders, but warriors that balanced the inherent inequalities between the two races. Their ability to purify youkai energy had countered the advantages of long-life and raw power the youkai had over the relatively weak humans.

In a battle that turned the tides of the war, a great miko general had prevented the collapse of a country the army depended on heavily for supplies and manpower. Single handedly, she managed to destroy a massive youkai regiment with her power. What she had done, and how, was lost to history, but what resulted was a jewel of power that ripped free of her breast, killing her as it killed the youkai she fought. The histories hinted that the jewel had been a terrible force and so had been secreted away, but again the details were merely shadows beneath the vague lines of text.

What they did know was that it attracted the interest of every power-monger within the neighboring lands. In the past week alone, two youkai and three rouges had tried to force their way into the shrine.

Kikyo regarded the fine girdle of light-weight armor that protected her chest and abdomen with wry sadness. The mikos of her shrine were getting a firsthand lesson in history they'd thought abandoned. Once again, they were donning armor and focusing their meditations not only to center their souls, but also to gather power.

Three had fallen already and two more were gravely injured. Of the monks, two had fallen and another was recovering from a broken wrist. Then, the group that had come was filled with older, fully-trained men. The mikos of the shrine were young, and most only half-trained. Kikyo did not like the shadows forming in their eyes with every attack. Wisdom should not have to be gained by violence.

Kione nodded to her as they passed on the trail and Kikyo paused to watch her descend to the beach. The youngest girl in the shrine, but showing a promise that had been muted before the arrival of the jewel. Now, some of the girls looked to her for guidance when only a week ago they'd sent her on petty errands and patted her head like a child.

She closed her eyes briefly and turned back to the shrine. No time to dwell on what could not be changed. All she could do was lend her strength to protect the jewel and continue her morning vigils on the beach.

Private research led her to believe the girl was in fact one of the mermaids of legend. There still existed some stories of benevolent Sirens that would steer blind ships with their voices, but they were few and not well known. Though they were mentioned casually in the texts before the Wars, they'd fallen into obscurity in the past millenniums.

Kikyo felt the disappearance of the jewel and the mermaids at the same time wasn't just coincidence. The mermaid girl's possession of the jewel stirred ideas that she dared not share with her contemporaries. They hadn't seen the compassion in the girl's face as she'd looked at the half-drowned man she'd saved. Her theories would be brushed aside under the assumption that all sea creatures were demons.

There was one other doubt that kept her voice silent. Despite her belief that the mermaids were in fact the protectors of the jewel, she couldn't reconcile the fact that the girl hadn't returned to retrieve the relic. Every morning that she did not see a dark head surfacing from the water, her idea seemed less and less likely. Perhaps the girl hadn't known what she possessed, thinking it only a precious bauble.

If that were the case, there were no experienced hands to return the jewel to and the mikos would have to continue protecting the jewel and do their best to keep its presence from being known.

What kept her returning to the beach every day was hope. She did not want to see the bright promise of Kione's abilities snuffed out defending a cursed piece of crystal.

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Kagome opened her mouth and gracefully submitted to having the doctor, a human, grasp her chin and tilt her head awkwardly on her neck.

"Hmm," the flea youkai on his shoulder droned nasally. She stared at him discreetly. Inu-Yasha had dumped her on the table and bellowed for 'That old geezer, Myouga.' When the doctor had walked in, she'd been surprised to see a young man. Then she'd realized that the dark lump on his long, gray robes wasn't a stain, but a demon.

The doctor leaned back. "I hate to admit it, but I don't really know what's wrong with you. There's no swelling in your throat that would indicate your vocal chords have been damaged, but at the same time, there was blood in your throat swab, though that could have been from a superficial mouth wound."

He leveled her with a serious frown. "Are you sure you haven't always been mute? A head injury might have caused hallucinatory dreams that made you believe you could speak."

The prince snorted from his position, lounging against the door to the examining room. "Doc, I saw the look on her face when she tried to say something. It was like someone hit her with a tree." He nodded his head in her direction. "She spoke before she was shipwrecked."

The doctor turned from the prince to look at her again. "Well, then, I'm afraid all I can do is suggest you get some rest. I can't explain the pain in your feet when you walk, either. There isn't any evidence of trauma that would suggest nerve damage."

Kagome shrugged and resisted the urge to scratch at her shoulder where the cloth of the short robe she'd been given itched against her skin. How could land-walkers stand to be cocooned in such irritating stuff?

He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and straightened from his stool.

"Come back and see me in a week and we'll see if anything new develops."

The flea demon bounced from his shoulder onto hers and she had to crane her neck to see him.

"Don't worry, m'lady, I'm sure the prince will make sure you're given a comfortable room where you can recover."

Inu-Yasha blinked and then scowled. "Hey, why is she suddenly my responsibility?"

Myouga bowed in the prince's direction. "She is a woman in distress, and you are the gentleman who has rescued her. You are bound by honor, My Lord."

"What? She's some commoner from who-knows-where." He jerked his chin to point down the hall. "Let the maids find some place for her."

Kagome kept her face carefully blank. She wasn't terribly surprised. Her opinion of the prince kept bouncing between Secretly Thoughtful and Shark Bait; this was just one more point for the latter assessment.

The flea gasped and waved several hands at her. "My Lord, how can you say that? Look at her smooth, pale complexion, the way she carries her head, the set of her shoulders!" He clasped his hands before him and nodded solemnly. "She may be disoriented and exhausted from her ordeal, but she is undoubtedly of noble breed."

Golden eyes snapped onto her face and raked over it a couple of times. She met his gaze blandly. Her story was that she was from a small, costal town far to the north. She dared not claim noble heritage in case the kingdoms kept in close contact.

"Girl," he snapped, "are you a noble? We can send word to your kin, if you are."

Well, that wouldn't work. The other half of the story was that all her kin had been lost in the wreck. He didn't look like he thought she was royalty, anyway.

She shook her head.

"They kept you inside most of the time cause you're crippled?"

The flea gasped and the doctor shot him a neutral glance.

She didn't see how that made any difference, but decided to go along with him on the assumption that he was proving she was common. This time a nod.

"See? A commoner. She can't write, either."

Myouga huffed and folded his arms together. "How do you know that?"

Inu-Yasha shrugged. "I kept asking her why she didn't speak up, but she didn't try to write out in the sand what was wrong. She just kept pointing at her throat."

"She was under stress!"

Again, she found herself under the prince's unexpected scrutiny.

"You tell them, then." She pointed at her throat and he growled. "Can you write and read?" She shook her head and smothered a grin. "Commoner!" he barked and turned to stalk out of the room.

Myouga danced on her shoulder. "But Lord Inu-Yasha, you still have a responsibility! What about chivalry? What about your honor as a prince of Shihai no Inu?"

He snarled at the flea youkai. "Right, they remember I'm a prince when they don't want to deal with something." He turned his glare on her. "Look, you don't want to have to hang around me, do you?"

She blinked at having the choice laid in her lap. She glanced at the doctor and down at Myouga. Her quest said she should go with the prince because he had the jewel, but even aside from that Inu-Yasha was the only person in the whole country that she knew. A sudden stab of isolation made her turn back to his familiar face. And to be fair, he'd been more than gentle when helping her with the clothes and carrying her up the cliff.

Kagome nodded jerkily.

His face lifted in surprise before slamming back down into a scowl. "Keh." He turned his head away, but didn't move to leave the room.

The doctor chose that moment to pipe in. "And if you do this, I won't tell your father how his son seriously endangered his life by running all over the continent with a severe concussion."

The prince kept scowling at nothing, but Kagome saw the subtle shift of his shoulders and nervous flick of his ears. There was an odd familiarity to being mute. She often sat at the fringes of conversations and just listened and observed. With four overprotective sisters and a monarch for a mother, she was used to silence. The prince's unusual inclusion of her presence was almost uncomfortable.

"I still haven't given him my official report about that. He's been too tied up in court business to deal with basic paperwork." He shrugged and tucked his hands in the deep pockets of his robe. "I could just say you over exerted yourself a bit and I was being cautious. Or, I could put in all the gritty details. Depends on what kind of a mood I'm in."

Inu-Yasha rolled his eyes and unfolded himself from the door. "Fine, I'll take the wench." He glowered at the flea and doctor. "You two are lucky I like you or I wouldn't put up with this kind of shit."

Doc just smiled and stepped forward to help Kagome slip off the short examining table. Inu-Yasha came to flank her other side as she braced her hands against the table and lowered her feet to the floor. She winced as her toes made contact and clenched her teeth against the full pain as her weight transferred onto her new limbs.

This time wasn't as bad as on the beach. She simply absorbed the pain with steady breaths like Kaede had taught her to do. A miko couldn't let a minor injury take her out of fighting. She had to learn to deal with pain.

Still, she'd never suffered more than bumps and scrapes in her fifteen years, so the feeling of thousands of spear tips searing her flesh every time she took a step was a little overwhelming. Her knees wobbled and she felt tears prick her eyes.

"Weakling," the prince muttered and again scooped her up in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck, half annoyed and half relieved. As a princess, she was used to having people assist her from time to time, but here she was just a miko. A miko needed to be able to take care of herself.

But since the prince was already striding down the hall at an almost breakneck pace, she decided she could save the argument for later.

They traveled down tall, stone corridors lined with giant armor and weapons, the prince's footsteps muffled by plush, white carpets. High, narrow windows let in light and the balmy breeze of the ocean. The occasional sprig of brightly colored flowers set in ornate vases saved the halls from being too forbidding and Kagome wondered who had decided to put them there. In her experience, men didn't think to mix in softer elements with their displays of power.

The few servants they encountered stopped to bow as the prince passed and gave them curious glances from beneath their lashes. Kagome wondered if there were any other nobles living in the palace. Her mother always had one or two families visiting at any time to keep up relations.

As if he'd heard her thoughts, Inu-Yasha suddenly broke the silence. "The king won't want you to take up any extra room since we're going to be hosting a ball soon, so I'll see if Sango will put up with you. She's got an extra bed in her room."

She nodded, and his eyes flicked down to give her an unreadable look.

"What's your name, anyway?" The voice was still rough, but there was genuine curiosity there.

Maybe not so much shark bait, she decided.

Very carefully, she mouthed the syllables so he would understand.

'Ka. Go. Me.'


	5. Distrust

**A/N:** Uh… sorry? Here's my list of excuses in no particular order: school, WORK, boy, choir, WORK, family, writer's block, WORK. Uh, there… hope that answers some questions. So… without further ado…

**Disclaimer: **Seriously, I own nothing.

**Without Words:** Distrust

The inky waters were sprinkled with the faint luminescence of tiny plankton. Kagome drifted through them with lazy strokes of her tail and wondered if the night sky, swept with stars, wasn't just the bottom of the ocean.

She stretched her arms down into the fathomless chasm that gently cradled her with its teeth. If she swam deep enough into it, would she fall out into the clouds?

The water around her grew dimmer as, one by one, the hazy glow of lights winked out. Pressure built against her chest and Kagome felt herself being pulled by an invisible current down into the mouth of the chasm. She turned her body up and kicked to get away.

A scream bubbled from her mouth when nothing happened. She looked down to find legs carved of pale marble dragging her deeper into the belly of the world, faster and faster until the water was a paralyzing weight rushing around her. She shrieked for help and watched silent, red-tinted bubbles whisked away with her tears.

Her chest contracted as the water squeezed her and she sobbed for air. Her thoughts raced as she felt herself being pressed to death by the rushing water. She'd never find the jewel. She'd given up everything and now it would be for naught.

Then, she broke free of the ocean. She had a brief glimpse of cresting waves before she was plummeting through the air. Her stomach lurched into her throat and she flailed her arms uselessly. Never had she experienced such terror. Never had she felt so out of control of her own body. The thin air around her did nothing to slow her descent, letting her slip through wispy clouds to meet the approaching wall of water.

When she hit the waves, it felt like the ocean had turned to stone. The last of her breath whooshed from her lungs and she lay stunned as her mind floated listlessly between darkness and light.

"Kagome?"

Something warm and firm grasped her arm and hauled her upright. She blinked and felt awareness snap into place. Cold seeped up from the stone floor through the plush rug and Kagome realized she was sitting on the floor. She sucked in a shaky breath and pressed her hand to her chest to calm the staccato rhythm stirred by her nightmare.

"A bad dream?" Sango guessed and knelt beside her.

Kagome stared at the rumpled bodyguard dazedly for a moment before nodding. The dream played vividly behind her eyes and she could still feel the helpless terror from her fall clawing at her chest. She glanced behind her to reassure herself that she'd only tumbled off her bed and not the edge of the world.

Sango offered a thin smile and her hands to help her stand. "It will get easier with time. Sometimes, when I'm stressed, I dream about the rogue demon that took my mother."

Kagome opened her mouth to offer her sympathies and closed it again with a snap. The other girl sighed and grasped her forearms.

"That will take time, too. In the morning, the monk and I will start teaching you to write, which will help, I think."

She nodded and wobbled to her feet, schooling her face to keep the pain from showing. When Inu-Yasha had dumped her into his bodyguards' laps the night before, he'd ordered Miroku to check for any magical explanations for her lame feet and throat. After a brief reading of her aura, he'd looked thoughtful, but could offer no explanations.

Although her mentor hadn't mentioned anything about recurring pain in her feet, Kagome suspected it was just another side effect of the spell. Kaede hadn't been able to guarantee it would work flawlessly. Perhaps giving up her voice, powers, family, and life weren't enough sacrifice for a pair of spindly limbs.

A sigh escaped her as she sat back on the edge of her bed and lifted her feet from the floor. If she didn't shake off this bitterness soon, she would forget why she had given up so much.

"Go back to sleep," Sango urged as she crossed the room to her own bed.

Kagome nodded absently and stretched back out on the soft mattress. The moonlight that streamed through the narrow windows said dawn was still a few hours away. She frowned as she flopped onto the cushy pillow and let her eyes wander over the room. Even if she tried, she knew she couldn't sleep again that night, but there was no need to trouble Sango with that.

She listened to the bodyguard's breathing even out and watched moonlight shadows dance in the corners of the room. They were almost as fanciful as the rippling shadows of her room at home. But here, she couldn't always tell the difference between a trick of light and her own imagination. Human eyes were weaker against the dark than a mermaid's.

So was their sense of direction. The few hours she'd lasted awake after the prince had left her with Sango and Miroku, she'd kept searching out windows to find the coast or to spy the angle of the sun to consciously orient herself.

A small shiver tickled the hairs on her arms and she belatedly remembered to untangle the blankets and pull them snugly under her chin. A mermaid didn't need blankets, either.

She rolled to face the wall and stuffed her face into the mattress so Sango wouldn't hear her silent weeping.

* * *

"Very good, M'lady," Miroku murmured. "Now, try 'me.'" He tapped a slender finger at the next symbol on the chart.

Kagome pantomimed the strokes with her chalk just above the slate before slowly forcing her wrist to move with the delicate sweeps and curves of the character. Her brows furrowed when, again, the lines came out jerky and angular.

With an impatient huff, she erased the offensive mark with her dusty rag and tried again. The monk sat diligent at her side, pointing out stroke errors and other nuances.

Sunlight dappled the wide desk with the shadows of dust motes and warmed Kagome's back as she curled over her work, long hair pooling over one shoulder. When she had written the character smoothly enough to satisfy her, she leaned back with a heavy sigh and glanced at the monk for approval.

She half listened to his polite murmuring of praise and kept the prince in the corner of her eye. He sat slumped in a high-backed wooden chair in the corner of the study closest to the door. His arms were folded into the billowy, red material of his robes and a faint scowl etched his face. His golden eyes had been on her all morning, boring into the side of her head with their intensity. She'd given up meeting his stare with challenging ones of her own after the first half hour of her studies; he'd just scowled deeper and refused to look away.

The morning had dragged on after that, Kagome trying valiantly to concentrate on her work and ignore the prince while Miroku tried to ignore the tension. Kagome fingered a piece of chalk and wondered if he would keep staring if she chucked it right between his eyes.

"How is it coming?" Sango pushed through the door with her shoulder and revealed a tray bulging with lunch. Three pairs of eyes locked onto her and she paused just inside the door in surprise. "Um, I'm sorry it took so long."

Miroku recovered first. In moments he'd rounded the table and crossed the room to meet the other bodyguard.

"Sango! Please let me help you with that." He grinned broadly as he took the tray from her. Kagome watched them, her eyebrows rising when his attention stayed on the tray only long enough to see it safely placed on a table. Then, all his focus was on the wary-looking girl.

"My Lady, you should have let me accompany you to the kitchens." His words and tone were just as charming as when he spoke to Kagome, but she noticed a certain gleam in his eye as he smiled at the other bodyguard.

Apparently, Sango noticed as well.

She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at him."Why would I need your help with one tray of food?"

"With both your hands full, he'd have an easier time groping you," Inu-Yasha supplied dryly from the corner. Kagome felt her attention wrenched away from the pair back onto the prince. He was scowling at his bodyguards instead of her, now, and one ear flicked as a piece of dust lingered on the tip.

Miroku protested his innocence, but Sango just brushed past him to approach the table. "Someone had to stay with the prince." She began stacking books to clear a space for lunch.

"Ah, but Lady Kagome was here to keep him company," Miroku reminded, sidling up beside her and smiling guilelessly when she shot him a suspicious glance.

Sango took a prudent step aside and snorted. "The king is already annoyed with us for not turning anything up about the assassination attempt. He hasn't said anything about yesterday morning, but I don't want to tempt fate."

"Keh, like I need you guys anyway." Inu-Yasha grumped from his chair.

Sango spared him a tolerant look. "I'm afraid that's beside the point, my Lord."

Kagome glanced between the bodyguards and the prince and felt something like kinship stir within her. She straightened in her chair and rapped the table lightly with her right hand. Sango and Miroku looked at her in mild surprise, but Inu-Yasha merely swiveled an ear in her direction to join the one that had already been trained on her.

She beckoned him with a hand, gesturing to the food. He regarded her out of the corner of his eye before uttering a very put-upon sounding "keh" and unfolding from the chair.

Lunch was decidedly one-sided for entertainment. Sango sat next to Kagome and alternately bickered and argued with the monk across from her. Privately, Kagome felt the animated glitter in the woman's eyes as she rose to Miroku's mild baiting had more to do with enjoyment than malice.

For her part, she alternated nibbling tentatively on the rich, foreign food that she vaguely remembered being taught names for, and watching the prince. He ate with single-minded intensity, plucking different tidbits from the central platter with his claws and chewing with stern efficiency.

Only a few minutes had passed when he rose from the table and started for the door. Sango and Miroku paused in their debate about the relative suspiciousness of a few of the prince's older cousins and stared at the decimated tray in bemused surprise. Kagome, used to eating with four teenage young women, had wisely hoarded off her desired portion early on.

"Finished already, my Lord?" Miroku questioned dryly.

"Keh, I'm bored. I'm going out." He tossed them a parting scowl over his shoulder and opened the door.

With a shared sigh, the two bodyguards turned to each other and brought up their hands. Kagome watched curiously as they shook them a couple of times, making strange symbols with their fingers.

"Three out of five," Sango muttered as Miroku grinned triumphantly.

"Lady Kagome needs to continue her lessons," he pointed out mildly, "And the prince is probably halfway to the forest by now."

The female bodyguard huffed, but rose from the table anyway. Kagome held up one of her fruits for her to take, knowing she hadn't had much of a chance to eat. Sango blinked at her for a moment before taking it with an appreciative smile.

"I'll try to keep him out of trouble," she promised, tucking the apple, if Kagome remembered right, into her robes.

As she left, Kagome picked up her chalk and gamely scrawled out the word 'why' on her slate. When Miroku looked at her questioningly, she gestured after Sango and then stuck up a finger on either side of her head and scowled.

Miroku closed his eyes and fought to keep his mouth from twitching into a smile. "Are you asking why Sango had to go with the prince?" He tucked his hands more securely into his sleeves. "We're on strict orders by the king to stay with Prince Inu-Yasha at all times."

She nodded impatiently and pointed to the slate again.

He shrugged. "Normally, we only escort him on the nights when his demon energies ebb, but right now we are investigating an assassination attempt. The king is taking extra precautions."

Kagome nodded thoughtfully and picked up her chalk again. She had more questions for him, but couldn't think of an easy way of pantomiming them where he would understand. For now, she would just have to keep her eyes and ears open.

* * *

Three days passed with shocking speed for Kagome as she continued her studies with Miroku.

Every morning she awoke with the sun and Sango, mimicking and mimicked the bodyguard's morning ritual of stretches and short exercises in the middle of the room. The other girl didn't comment on her appalling lack of coordination and balance, but offered quiet suggestions and friendly hand-ups when she ended up sprawled on the rug.

"You must have a mild concussion," she had observed the first morning when Kagome had tripped on her way out of bed. "You'll feel dizzy and off balance for a while until you heal."

Kagome merely smiled over gritted teeth and worked on ignoring the stabbing pain she felt every time she put weight on her feet. The exercises were slowly acquainting her with the different muscle and balance structure that went with having legs. Being mobile was probably more important to her quest than her efforts to learn their writing system. If she wanted to learn more about the prince, she'd have to keep up with his long strides.

Late morning and early afternoon was spent with Miroku in the dusty study tucked at the end of the hallway of the prince's wing. Inu-Yasha wandered in and out of these sessions randomly, followed by a weary-faced Sango. The afternoons and evenings she spent by herself. The prince attended dinner with his family and other minor social functions, and the king required Sango and Miroku present to keep an eye out for leads in their investigation.

On her first night alone, Kagome had crawled onto the window seat of her room, stared at the moonlit sea, and cried. The second night she explored the rooms of the prince's wing as much as she could without keys to open the private rooms. Two guest rooms, a spacious bath, lounge, and music room lined the hallway across from her room. The prince's room was flanked by Miroku's room, which was the true bodyguard quarters, and the room she and Sango shared, which doubled as a guest room. A modest library sat between her room and the study and the hall ended in servants' quarters and a back stairway that the bodyguards preferred to use over venturing into the castle proper.

The prince, as far as she could tell, preferred a convenient window over stairs whenever he wanted to get around. Kagome saw this as a potentially huge obstacle in her plan to learn more about him. Sango dropped like a stone every night with all the running aroundup and down stairs she had to do to keep up with the surly prince.

The third night she'd spent huddled up in a worn, leather chair in the library with a small lamp and a history book for company. She'd gotten through five long pages before her vision had started blurring the foreign symbols so much that they started to look like her own. Sango had merely rolled over when she slunk back into their room, the moon low in the sky, and finally gone to bed.

That morning, Kagome slept through her daily exercises and woke to an empty room and a tray of cold lunch sitting on the vanity. She limped over to the low stool and plopped into the chair. Mornings weren't pleasant for her feet.

She pecked thoughtfully at a chunk of bread as she contemplated the few words neatly scratched onto a piece of paper tucked under her water glass.

'Important meeting with the King. Be back before dinner. – Sango'

The note fluttered against the tray with her sigh as she leaned back on the stool.

_A whole day by myself._ A quick glance at the sun reminded her that she'd slept most of the first half of it away, but there were still plenty of empty hours to fill. Her writing was still slow enough that she didn't feel confident in bothering any servants. She was good at being unobtrusive, but there were bound to be questions about her presence that she didn't want to have to answer.

_Well, I'll just work by myself in the library and surprise Miroku tomorrow morning,_ she mused as she gingerly rose from her half-eaten meal and moved to the center of the room to begin her morning exercises.

* * *

Inu-Yasha tromped through the halls of the castle with little thought for what the visiting nobles he passed might think. The castle was fairly empty at the moment, since most guests wouldn't be arriving for the ball for a few days, but enough had hung around after his birthday fiasco for there to be plenty of gossip left in his wake.

He snorted to himself as he pushed through the doors that led into his wing of the castle. Why bother worrying about what they thought? Even if he'd been a model of courtly graces and decorum, they'd still whisper about his heathen ears and tainted blood.

Worrying was a waste of energy, like his bodyguards' work at finding out who had engineered the assassination attempt. The whole thing was done for the benefit of the rumor-mongers. The king knew the news of a 'top-secret' investigation would leak to the court within a day. As long as the court thought he was taking the appropriate action in response to the slight against his throne, the actual pinning of a suspect was incidental. And so, after a week or so of no progress, he'd called it off with a flick of his hand.

At least that meant Inu-Yasha was free of his bodyguards' constant presence. They could focus all of their attention on doting on that strange girl that had washed up a few days ago. His ears flicked back at the thought of her. There was just something offsetting about her that he couldn't figure out.

He stalked into the library and paused.

The girl looked up, startled, from her book and stared at him with large, blue-gray eyes. They had to be the biggest damned eyes he'd ever seen on a girl.

He flicked a glance at the title of the book and snorted. "What are you, a spy?"

She narrowed her eyes at him and pressed her lips together, but didn't shrink as he strode across the room and plucked the book from her hands. The History of the Sihai no Inu, page twelve of the first chapter.

He closed the book and dropped it onto the table next to her chair. "How long have you been reading?"

Her face smoothed and she looked over her shoulder to the window. A moment of consideration, and then she held up three fingers.

"Three hours?" A nod. "Twelve pages in only three hours?" He couldn't read something _interesting _for three hours, and _he_ could clear over a hundred pages in that time. This was a supreme act of diligence.

A light blush crept over her cheeks. Seven fingers, now.

"Keh, only seven pages? I'm gonna tell that damn monk not to bother teaching you anymore. You're too dumb."

As expected, she bristled and sat up straighter in the chair, _his_ chair. Who said she could just take over his library without permission? Not that he'd spent much time in it recently, but she didn't know that.

Her right foot twitched twice as she scooped up the slate lying in her lap and began making deliberate strokes with a piece of chalk. He watched the words form upside down, one ear trained on her and the other on the open door.

'Where are Sango and Miroku?' She thrust the question under his nose and he jerked back as chalk dust swarmed into his nostrils. He snorted in annoyance and swiped the slate out of her hand and away from his face.

"Damn it, wench, I'm not blind," he snarled. A patient stare was all the consideration she offered. "They're in a meeting with the king. Why, you need them to turn the pages for you?"

A withering glare this time. She opened her mouth to say something and then cut herself off with a violent sigh. She reached for the slate held loosely at his side and he quickly raised it over his head. Blue eyes met his, startled, before narrowing at the blasé expression on his face.

She pointed to the slate and then gestured back to herself. 'Give it to me.'

"Why should I?"

Impatient huff. A finger jabbed quickly at her throat and then fell away in a weary and frustrated arc. Her accusing eyes said the rest. 'You know I can't speak, you jerk.'

He grunted and tossed the slate back into her lap. "You're pretty arrogant for some no-name peasant."

Her face paled a bit, but her expression remained querulous. After a moment, her eyes dropped to the side and she stiffly bowed her head to him. Her chin remained fixed and proud the whole time, though. Inu-Yasha felt his temper spark.

"I don't know who you are, or what you think you're gonna get by being here, but don't think I'm gonna fawn all over you like Sango and Miroku just because you're mute. As soon as all this shit with the ball is over, your ass is out of here."

A bit of fear flashed across her face as she jerked her gaze back to him, but she tightened her jaw and didn't flinch. Her hands curled in her lap and she nodded once. 'Fine.'

His ears flicked back at the grim acceptance he read in her posture. Who the fuck was this girl?

Despite his loud declaration to Myouga and the Doc that she had to be a commoner, he had almost immediately begun to doubt that assumption. She carried herself with too much dignity and thoughtfulness to just be some dumb village wench.

And yet, she couldn't read. Even the most misogynistic countries he knew of allowed their royal-born women to read. And there was the bizarre way she'd washed up on his mother's beach. A true wreck should have washed up more than just one bewildering girl, and he doubted she had been tossed overboard by a treacherous crew, like him.

The only explanation he could pin down with any certainty was that she wasn't who she said she was. Other than that, all he could guess was that she might be running from something.

Or maybe she was a spy sent to assassinate him.

He glanced at her tender feet and stubborn chin. Not likely.

"Just don't get too cozy, alright?"

She didn't respond, just picked up the book from the table and opened back up to page twelve.

He blinked and scowled, "Bitch," and turned on his heel to leave. She was pretty fun to bicker with, though.

* * *

After fuming over the prince's parting shot, Kagome had calmed down enough to seriously consider his words and his threats. Well, if he was so determined to kick her out within a matter of days, she would just have to complete her task within the allotted time.

Having a deadline and a clear goal did wonders for her mood. The next morning, she rose before Sango and her cheeks were glowing with determination by the end of their morning exercises.

"You're a quick study, Kagome," the bodyguard commented as they sat down to a simple breakfast. She hadn't fallen once today, pushing the constant ache in her feet to the back of her mind with pointed concentration.

Kagome shrugged and took thoughtful bites from an apple. Even Sango's company couldn't pull her mind from its inner musings. Deciding to find the jewel before the end of the ball was a fine idea, but accomplishing the task was something else. To do so, she would have to get close enough to the prince to get him to tell her, whether by purpose or slip, the whereabouts of the jewel. Or, to get him to trust her enough to allow her access to his rooms so she could hunt it out herself. Though, ultimately, she would have to accomplish both aims at once, since getting him to tell her where the shikon no tama was didn't guarantee he would cheerfully hand it over at her asking.

"I'm afraid we're going to abandon you again, today," Sango noted over the last few bites of her breakfast roll.

'Why?' Kagome mouthed clearly.

Sango's mouth thinned grimly. "There have been some reports of rogue youkai terrorizing the Northwest border of the kingdom. Apparently, the neighboring kingdom has been having a problem with them lately, and hasn't been able to keep them from spilling over our borders." She swiped her napkin over her mouth and laid it across her empty plate. "The king has asked Miroku and me to investigate to see if they'll be a problem for his guests during the ball."

Kagome tilted her head slightly to the left as she considered the possible political maneuvering behind the assignment. From what she could tell from Inu-Yasha's sneering and the bodyguards' own dour estimation of their worth in court, the king didn't particularly dislike them, but hardly favored them. Sending them out on a security mission could potentially be a mark of favor and trust.

_Except the real preparation for the ball's security will center mostly on the city and castle itself_, she concluded with a small sigh. A moderately important mission: something that needed taking care of, but not greatly imperative. And since the prince was fairly invulnerable as long as he had his demon strength, their presence wasn't strictly needed at the palace.

'Change of scenery,' she scrawled sympathetically. Sango eyed her slowly improving penmanship and memory and grinned.

"True. There are some great trading villages near the border. I'll bring you back a souvenir."

She wasn't given to acquiring clutter, but the mark of friendship the gesture implied warmed her. Kagome clasped her hands together and nodded enthusiastically.

Besides, with her tutors and companions gone for several days, she'd have the perfect setting, and excuse, to set her blooming plan into motion.

* * *

The dull, persistent ache in her feet as she paced down the hall was beginning to give her a stress headache. Kagome briefly indulged in a frowning wince before reschooling her expression into dogged persistence. After all, she reminded herself, this was her plan, and she was going to stick by it.

After discarding a few elaborate schemes, she'd decided to be just as realistic as possible. There was no convenient way to make the prince like her, much less trust her. He'd made that clear the other day in the library. So, she had decided to go with something a little simpler. A little drastic.

A little annoying.

"Dammit, wench!" Inu-Yasha snarled and spun on his heel to face her.

Kagome managed to stop herself from walking into him and met his gaze with as innocent and mild an expression as she could muster.

"Why the hell can't you find someone else to drive crazy for a while?" His hands flew in the air and his bellowing voice bounced off the stone walls and echoed up into the high ceiling. A passing maid faltered in her step before hurrying on her way, carefully keeping her eyes forward.

She didn't offer him any explanation, though her slate and chalk hung from a thick string tied to the sash of her short dress.

"Just cause your nannies went running off to wherever doesn't mean you should bug the shit out of me." He thrust a clawed thumb at his chest. "I'm a prince, get it? You're just some random piece of sea trash that washed up on _my_ beach. That doesn't mean you can talk to me! Hell, that doesn't mean you can even look at me!" He sucked in a deep breath and barked the rest inches from her face. "So go the fuck _away_!"

Her plan was almost too simple to work. She just wouldn't let him out of her sight. When he left his room in the morning, she was waiting by the door. When he returned from an audience with his father or a brief skirmish with his brother, she stood from her cross-legged perch on a nearby bench and followed. Even when he tried escaping the palace grounds, she would follow him as far as she dared before he lost her in the surrounding forest.

He had noticed. Quickly. And he hadn't been the only one. The maids had begun to chuckle that the Poor Dumb Girl had developed a crush on the ornery prince.

"Do you see the way she toddles after him like a lonely little kitten?" they'd giggle over baskets of folded linens or trays of lunch.

Kagome had been momentarily perturbed by the chatter. Not about the crush, because she realized it was a likely conclusion. Nor was she bothered by them speaking about her like she wasn't there. She'd quickly discovered that most of the castle, staff and nobles alike, somehow believed her inability to speak also meant she was a little slow.

What bothered her was her continued exasperation with the unfamiliar colloquialisms she kept stumbling over in the language. In short, she didn't see how her following the prince made her like a bumbling kitten. Kirara, Sango's demon cat, followed her human with grace and presence. Somehow, she didn't think that was quite the imagery the maids were evoking. And since Sango was still on her mission, she couldn't ask for an explanation.

Still, for all the rumors and sore feet her plan was inciting, it looked like it was working. The prince's tolerance for her presence for her was shortening dramatically with each day she trailed him. Yesterday, she'd only been able to keep at his heels until midmorning before he'd jumped screaming out a window and fled into the forest. At this rate, it wouldn't take much longer for him to snap and either pay attention to her, or strangle her. She was counting on the anticipated disapproval from his bodyguards and physicians to dissuade him from the latter course.

Besides, she had little else to lose.

"Leave me alone," he snarled again when all she did was continue to watch him patiently. And then, with a rake of his claws through his hair, he tried to step around her. She pivoted on the balls of her feet to follow. He halted immediately and grabbed his head with a mild roar.

He spun on her and clutched her shoulders, punctuating each word with a sharp shake. "What the hell do you want from me!" His right eyebrow twitched in counterpoint to his heavy breathing.

Kagome calmly pulled out her slate, wrote 'company,' and presented it to him with a bland face.

He stared at the one word for so long that a vein in his forehead began to throb dangerously. Kagome felt light sweat begin pooling in her palms and lower back, but didn't back down.

With a guttural snarl, he thrust her away from him and snatched the slate from her hands in the same instant. He snapped the board in two with barely a flick of his wrists and hurled the pieces down the opposite end of the hall from her. She stared after the wreckage with wide eyes. She could practically see her disembodied head lolling on the plush carpets instead, and had no doubt that was probably what he was envisioning, too.

He thrust a claw under her nose. "Stay away from me," his voice rolled with menace, "Or I'll break something else."

She watched him leap up and ricochet off the wall and out the opposite window and felt a weight settle on her chest. Her feet dragged her to where the broken board lay forlornly on the carpet. She clutched the pieces to her chest and unexpectedly felt tears rise behind her eyes.

This was no more than she should have expected, after all. Why should she suddenly feel like the looming walls were stifling her? She knew he had little cause to like her, and many reasons to distrust her. So why was it suddenly so hard to breathe? It was such a simple request, and one made out of her own duplicitous agenda. She shouldn't be so affected when he brushed it off.

With a gasping, voiceless sob, she hurried from the confining walls of the palace and fled to the sea.


	6. Friendship

**A/N: **So, another chapter... another too-long break between updates. I think you guys are just going to have to be resigned to slow updates from me. Don't know why this is harder to write than ITFH, but it is. Heh. Anyway, I'm off to Japan for three and a half weeks. Won't be back in the states till Aug. 18th. I'm taking my journal so I can jot down some stuff if I'm inspired. Hopefully we'll see chapter 7 early September.

**Without Words: **Friendship

The hum of the waves breaking against the shore called to her like a soothing lullaby. But, as Kagome stood at the head of the stone steps that would take her to the cool caress of her home, her legs stuttered to a halt.

She gazed over the dark ocean and felt her heart quail. She had abandoned the world that floated far beneath the glittering bands of sea foam that winked in and out of existence under the light of the dying moon.

It wasn't really the prince she was disappointed in. Who was she to expect him to endure her presence when she was both unexpected and unwanted? She was disappointed in herself, for unconsciously clinging to his presence as one of her touchstones in this dry, alien world. If she worried too much about rejection, she wouldn't be able to focus on her goal; on what made giving up her life worthwhile.

Besides, she was no stranger to rejection. This was just another obstacle in her path that she had no other choice but to overcome. And it wasn't like she didn't have other people who accepted her. Sango and Miroku had made no secret of their immediate liking of her.

She didn't need the prince's regard. Hadn't she already decided that her daydreams about him as she supported his vulnerable body through the stormy night had been nothing more than fancy? She couldn't keep holding him to some misguided, idealized image that she'd secretly treasured in her heart for a few short hours. Those dreams were childishly romantic ideas at best and foolish sentimentality in truth.

And, she knew deep down, so was the tiny hope that she would somehow fall in love with someone who could save her borrowed life on land. In a country full of demons, one mute human was of little regard. It was best to accept that dismal truth now, before she let her deluded fancies get too out of hand.

Those kinds of dreary thoughts floated through her mind as she stared over the murmuring ocean. As she watched, she thought she could make out the willowy forms of mermaids in the bubbly froth. They stared at her with reproachful eyes and outstretched arms.

_This is your fate_, they whispered on the sea breeze that tugged at the ends of her long hair.

_I know_, she mouthed back through trembling lips.

Her legs folded beneath her and she watched their bodies form and dissolve with each breaking wave.

* * *

The next morning she dutifully pulled herself out of bed and was already halfway through her stretches when she remembered that she didn't have anything to do for the day. Not now that her plan to pester the prince into paying attention to her had blown apart so spectacularly in her face.

She found herself sitting listlessly in the middle of the room watching dust motes drift through beams of early morning light. The hours of the day stretched before her, long and lonely. Familiar melancholy settled onto her shoulders and she lost the motivation to finish her exercises.

After nibbling on a piece of bread from her breakfast tray, she wandered into the library to look for something interesting to read. When nothing managed to catch her eye, she moped through the halls and eventually made her way outside and back to the cliff overlooking her beach.

The ocean was no more cheerful to her eyes under the light of the sun. With each salty gust of breeze she thought she could hear the faded spirits of the mermaids sighing and weeping at her. It only pulled her into a darker mood, but she still couldn't muster the will to tear herself away.

She didn't know how long she'd been sitting there, numbly watching the surface of her lost home, when suddenly a shadow fell over her. It took her a moment to realize that it wasn't just a cloud passing over the sun, but as she blinked at the ground before her, she noted the shadow had pointy ears.

Kagome tipped her head up to find the prince scowling down at her, his arms folded securely across his chest.

"How long are you going to mope for?" he demanded, "Because it's really starting to piss me off."

A spark of anger drew her hunched form ramrod straight and she glared up at him for a moment before the weight of her dark feelings pulled her eyes back to the sea with a careless shrug.

"Well snap out of it!" he barked, circling so his legs blocked her view of the ocean. This time the spark was more like an ember, and, as she stared at the red material of his slacks, it burned sullenly within her chest.

'What do you care?' she mouthed sharply with a sour twist to her mouth. Really, couldn't he make up his mind? She'd left him alone, hadn't she? Who was he to dictate how she felt? He was a prince, but certainly not her prince, and she still had enough noble's pride within her to be deeply offended by his arrogance.

His ear twitched and his scowl deepened as he stared at her lips. He opened his mouth and then shut it again with a click of his fangs. Then, with a muttered curse, he dug into his right sleeve and pulled out what looked like a thin, wide book.

"Here," he snapped, dropping the book into her lap. Kagome stared at it, her anger momentarily overshadowed by confusion. She tentatively opened the cover and discovered that the page was blank. A quick thumb through the rest of the pages showed that they all were.

She tipped her face back up, displaying her puzzlement for him, only to find him holding out a rectangular, leather satchel, his face studiously turned away. Examination of this new offering revealed five finely sharpened pencils, an eraser, and a small sharpening knife nestled underneath the flap. It even had a little loop to hook onto a belt or sash.

Kagome stared at the apparent gifts now lying in her lap in bemused amazement. His snarling face as he snapped her slate in half flashed before her mind's eye and she had to look up at him again to confirm it was the same prince standing before her.

"Well, what were you trying to say?" he barked, still not looking at her.

Her eyebrows shot up, disappearing beneath her fringe of bangs. Still not quite believing she was awake, she pulled out one of the pencils and set it to the first page of clean paper with near reverence.

She immediately grasped that this new gift was far more valuable than her slate. Not only for the cost of the materials, but for their sublime superiority. With so much space and such a fine instrument, she would have no trouble expressing herself in more than just clipped, broken phrases.

'I thought you hated me.' She held the page up to him with a gentle tug on his pant leg to get his attention.

He read her vulnerable words with a casual rake of his golden eyes, but didn't offer more than a "keh" in response.

'I know I was being annoying,' she continued, 'but really, all I wanted was a little company.' And, with the shadow of her feelings since last night coloring her recent actions, she realized wryly just how truthful her words were. She wanted to be around him, she admitted, and not just because she needed to find the jewel. That early impression of kinship that she'd felt toward him still remained. They were both lonely people cast from the kind graces of the people who were supposed to respect and honor them. He had found her and taken her into his home without question, even if it was with a lot of cursing and grumbling. And, she had held his life in her arms at the risk of her own for what had felt like an eternity at the time.

Kagome realized with slowly growing conviction that she felt herself tied to this surly man. And, even if she wasn't sure that she liked him, she knew she couldn't resist wanting to be near him all the same.

Of course, that nearly indescribable feeling would be hard to bear since she felt that he probably didn't look on her in any similar way. And how could he? To him, she was still just a stranger while she knew more about him than he could begin to suspect.

"Don't know why you'd want to hang around me, anyway," he grumbled and stepped around her to trudge back toward the palace.

She stared at his back thoughtfully and then down at the notebook in her hands. Her fingers curled possessively over the pencil and soft satchel. She was beginning to realize that he wasn't a man of words.

Her feet screamed as she scrambled quickly to her feet to follow him. A breath hissed from her throat and she stumbled a bit before limping into a steady gait to catch up. When she blinked the tears out of her eyes, she realized he'd paused to wait for her.

She raised her eyebrows at him in question.

Inu-Yasha flattened his mouth for a moment as he studied her face. "You're really not faking that, are you?" When she only blinked at him he jerked a finger at her feet. "They hurt when you walk."

A helpless smile tugged at her lips and she shrugged. She hadn't been able to think up a likely explanation for the phantom pain and was fleetingly glad that her muteness gave her an excuse for not having to say anything about it.

He sighed and folded his arms across his chest. "Well, I'm bored, and you won't be able to keep up if I patrol the forest."

So that was his excuse, she thought dryly. Personally, she would have called it "fleeing" or "running away to the last sanctuary of sanity."

It seemed like a rhetorical sort of statement, so she didn't offer any encouraging expressions. If she waited long enough, he would either solve the problem on his own or blow her off. Either way, she wasn't in any position to demand anything from him yet.

An ear twitched and he brought up a hand to scratch, business-like, at the back of his head. Then, he did a quick about-face and squatted in front of her.

"Get on," he ordered shortly, holding his arms away from his sides and cupping his hands.

His face was pointedly turned away, so he missed the look of complete confusion she could feel twisting her face. Get on his back? She was familiar with the concept, having hung onto the shoulders of her older sisters and the fins of dolphins when she was younger, but she couldn't figure out how it would translate to dryland.

He huffed, "Look, are you coming, or not? You're wearing pants, so it shouldn't be a problem, right?" Still, he wouldn't look at her.

Kagome chewed on the inside of her lip and approached his back until her knees brushed against the fabric of his jacket. She placed her hands tentatively on his shoulders and then wondered what to do next.

It seemed that her small initiative was all he needed, because in the next moment the prince was in motion. His hands reached around to grip the undersides of her knees and he pulled her legs around his waist as he stood. Kagome gripped desperately at his shoulders in surprise and to keep from toppling backward.

"You've never done this before, huh?" he asked as he hitched her higher on his back as if she were nothing more than a traveling pack. Kagome scowled at the hint of amusement she could hear in his voice.

"Just grip with your knees and keep a good hold on my shoulders. You really aren't that heavy, so I can do the rest," he went on in a more brusque tone. Kagome did as instructed and then gave one of his forelocks a sharp tug in retaliation.

"Oi, wench!" he snapped, stretching his head away from the offending hand. "Watch it, or I'll drop you when we're above the tree tops."

Kagome didn't have time to offer any gestured comeback, because in the next instant he had leapt into the air and was bounding toward the forest. Her heart lurched into her throat for a moment before a wave of familiarity almost swamped her. It was almost identical to swimming the fast currents with the dolphins. As the prince gained speed, the air seemed to thicken until it was streaming across her face and through her hair like water.

She tipped her face back and her lips bloomed into a genuine smile. It was even better once they entered the trees. The air became cool and dark to the point where, when she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine she was racing through the ocean depths.

She wasn't sure how long she basked in the nostalgic sensations before she was rudely drawn back to reality by a growing problem. Her legs were still new and, despite her morning workouts with Sango, they weren't used to this new form of exercise. Her legs trembled as she fought to keep her grip on Inu-Yasha's waist, but more and more of her weight was beginning to settle on his hands.

She tugged on his forelock again, this time gently, to get his attention.

He glanced back at her and she put on her best pleading face. He didn't nod, just turned his face forward again and alighted onto a nearby tree branch.

She slipped from his back and felt her legs turn into jellyfish. He gripped her upper arms and helped her lower herself onto the end of the branch closest to the trunk. She latched onto the rough surface gratefully and let her legs dangle from the branch.

When she felt steady, she granted the prince a thankful smile. He just snorted and leapt from the tree onto the ground below.

"Wait up there for a minute. There's something nearby," he was already walking deeper into the forest and not looking back to get her reaction, "I'm going to go make sure it isn't going to be trouble."

It took Kagome a moment to fully appreciate what he was about to do, but when she did she wasted no time in getting severely annoyed. She whistled air between her teeth, something Sango had been teaching her to do. Did he think he could just plunk her in a tree and saunter off? Her few experiences with gravity on dryland hadn't been pleasant, and those falls had only been from her relative height. She eyed the distance between her dangling feet and the ground and felt her face flush in anger

Her first few tries were pitiful, but the fourth emitted a sufficiently ear-piercing shriek.

Inu-Yasha's ears flattened and his shoulders hunched in defense. "Hey!" he spun around and pointed a menacing finger up at her, "quit that!"

She pointed at herself and then emphatically at the forest floor. He scoffed, "Afraid of heights?"

Her hand clenched and she shook it at him in inarticulate fury. If only she had her voice. Naoko had taught her a few choice phrases she'd learned from some of the Guards and a week or so of eavesdropping on the maid's chatter had let her pickup a few land terms.

He rolled his eyes and folded his hands into his sleeves. "I'll only be gone for a minute. Whatever it is, it's weak. You'll be safer up there than on the ground, anyway."

_Not if I fall!_ She shrieked in her head. Her hand groped at the tree trunk until it came away with a sizeable chunk of tree skin. She hurled it at him, her aim and distance alarmingly good. Air had much less resistance than water, after all.

He ducked his head away from the projectile, but she didn't miss the momentary flash of surprise on his face.

"Just wait for minute, would you? You're the one who was so eager to hang out with me in the first place, right? Well, this is what I do, so get used to it," he growled and turned on his heel away from her. She whistled again, but he just flattened his ears protectively against his skull and kept walking, muttering about killing Sango when she returned.

Kagome huffed a disgruntled sigh, which was about as expressive her anger could be these days, and leaned against the trunk of her tree. Somehow, she didn't think having a voice would have made any difference in that argument. His skull was just too thick.

The sounds of a distant scuffle reached her ears a handful of minutes later and she perked up in interest. She tried stretching her hearing as far as it would reach to try and determine what was going on. She assumed it was probably Inu-Yasha, but recognized the possibility that it could be something different, something that could be a threat to her.

She remained tense in her tree, one arm gripping the trunk tightly and the other hand holding the branch by her thigh, until the prince came strolling out of the underbrush a few minutes later.

He grinned up at her, "Weasel youkai. He wasn't doing much, but he decided to have an attitude, so I had to knock him around a bit."

Her answer was to scowl at him and squirm on her branch impatiently. Her legs were starting to go a little numb from so much dangling. At least when she'd followed him around at the palace she'd been able to get a little exercise. But she could understand his want to get outside. Wherever he went indoors, murmurs and whispers trailed in his wake, and most of them weren't flattering.

She wondered if the maids realized that his large, hanyou ears were more than just decorative. If they paid attention, they would realize that the furry triangles quivered a little whenever they picked up something particularly vicious. Kagome had concluded that based only on the few snippets loud enough for _her_ to hear.

She sighed in relief when he wasted no time in leaping up onto her branch to get her down. She let go of the trunk and carefully twisted her body to face him so she could get a good grip on his shoulders. So, she was surprised when he promptly ducked under her outstretched arms, wrapped an arm around her waist, and hoisted her over his shoulder.

They were already on the ground and making swift progress through the forest before her mind could fully comprehend the indignity. She'd seen sacks of food down at the docks handled with more courtesy.

"Oi!" the prince spluttered as the girl draped over his shoulder began to flop violently against him with fists and knees. He hastily dropped her to her feet, not bothering to catch her when she let out a pained gasp and ended up flat on her back amid the leaf litter.

"What are you, a fish?" he demanded, folding his arms defensively. Kagome glared at him as she hoisted herself up on her elbows. Standing was painful enough, but did he have to _drop_ her onto her sensitive feet? Of course, she had managed to land a few choice blows. He might have just been reacting to the elbow slamming into the back of his skull.

He waited for her to push herself upright again before continuing a swift stride through the trees. Kagome limped to keep up with him. She was sure all of the nerves she seemed to have lost in her legs had found a new home in her throbbing feet.

They'd only been walking for a handful of minutes before he got impatient with her quickly lagging pace. Again, she was presented the back of his hair-draped back. She had a brief, but fierce, war with her pride before admitting to herself that there was no other way she'd be able to get back to the palace before nightfall. So, with a stoic mask thinning the line of her lips, she latched onto him like a leech.

They made a few more stops, where she fumingly made brief acquaintances with new tree branches, before turning back toward the palace.

He didn't bother finding a door, but bounced up the outer walls and slipped through one of the impossibly high windows that lined his wing of the castle. Once they'd alighted back onto the plush carpet of the hall, he paused only to let her go before grumbling away toward his room without a backward glance.

Kagome sat huddled on the floor, waiting for her legs to firm up again, and watched him go. The phrases "never again" and "stupid wench" liberally speckled his grouching.

A maid wandered by a few moments later, new candles in hand to distribute among the rooms, and stuttered to a halt when she saw Kagome slumped on the floor.

"Oh, you poor thing!" she murmured sympathetically and tucked her basket under one arm so she could offer the free hand. "Did you get turned around, or is your limp acting up again?"

Kagome took the offered hand and let a vacant smile touch her lips. She'd given up trying to convince them that she wasn't addled in the head. Besides, she found that when she played along, they were much more likely to let something interesting slip. After all, who would a mute girl gossip with?

"There, now, let's get you back to your room." She couldn't have been more than three years older than Kagome, but she spoke like she was talking to a child. "Ms. Sango will be getting back in a few days with that letch, and you won't be so lonely. I don't see what it would hurt His Grumpiness to show a little compassion for someone as sweet-faced as you."

She tucked Kagome's hand in the crook of her arm and led her down the hall toward the room she shared with Sango. Kagome let the woman's words flow over her while keeping an innocent half-smile plastered on her face.

"Now there's a sourpuss," she prattled on. "He's been so busy skulking around avoiding everything lately that he hasn't even taken the time to arrange for an entertainment at the ball next week. The prince is supposed to have found some wind demon who can make bones dance." She shivered theatrically, "Gods bless that I'm not assigned any ballroom duties that night. I don't think I could stand it. Still, it would be nice to see Lord Nasty shown up by the prince. Though, he'll probably just sulk and sneak out early, like he usually does. Honestly, I don't know why he doesn't just leave and find some other court to bother. He must know what the court, and the _king_, thinks of him."

Kagome gritted her teeth. Oh, yes, he knew exactly what they thought of him. Just as she had always been hyperaware of what her own court had thought of her. Except when she'd sang. If she still had her voice, she might have thought about marching straight into the ballroom, in the middle of everything, and singing something devastatingly haunting in honor of the scorned prince.

She smiled grimly to herself. Oh, if she had her voice, she'd do a lot of things. And higher on her list than defending the prince with it was giving him a long and thorough verbal thrashing. Still, even with her irritation at his crassness grumbling in the back of her head, the very first thing she would do was correct this thoughtless woman's impudence. However fitting, and humorous, his various titles were, Inu-Yasha was still a prince. He should be called so.

The maid left her at her door with a pat on the shoulder and Kagome closed it behind her with the intention of it not opening again until the next morning. Her mood had turned from irritated-happy to just plain irritated. Despite his crassness, and her volatile reactions to the rudeness, the prince had been surprisingly good company. Now, three minutes with a maid had spoiled her evening.

She sank into the window seat and back into depression as she watched the sun droop low into the sky.

* * *

"You're a real pain in the ass, you know that?" Inu-Yasha groused absently as he hitched Kagome a little higher on his back. Kagome responded with an absentminded tug on his forelock, not taking her eyes from the scenery.

Today, the prince had taken them as far as the kingdom's Western border. The forest had thinned in the last few miles and now they looked over open plains that stretched like a green-tinted seafloor until they fell into the shadow of dark, snow-dusted mountains. The mountains rolled away to the northwest, which, as Inu-Yasha had told her, divided the two countries that shared the Shihai no Inu western border.

She gazed over the open expanse of grasses with longing, wishing for her tail and the quiet pressure of the ocean.

The prince jerked his chin toward the country east of the mountains. "That's where the monk and Sango escaped to."

Kagome nodded and leaned back to reach for her notepad. 'Are we here to look for them?' she wrote, balancing carefully as she used his shoulder for a desk.

He scanned the paper as she held it out for him and snorted. "They're only a day late. Probably got run out of whatever village they were staying in 'cause that damn monk groped the wrong girl."

_Then why are we here?_ Kagome thought to herself dryly. The prince had sauntered into her room through the connecting door at least an hour earlier than usual that morning. She'd been in the middle of rummaging through her borrowed wardrobe, testing fabrics. He hadn't even glanced at the pile of robes, pants, scarves, and short tunics strewn across the bed, just swiped the apple from her breakfast tray and grabbed her upper arm.

'What if they're hurt?' She paused, scratched out 'they're' and above it scribbled 'Miroku's.'

"Heh, if something happened, Sango would've sent a messenger. Don't worry about them. Your nursemaids'll be back, probably tonight or tomorrow, and then you'll be out of my hair."

Kagome gave him a deadpanned look and primly didn't point out that it was _he_ and not she who had made a habit of their outings. In the past four days, since that first morning when he'd apologized without apologizing, he'd spent more time with her than she ever would have anticipated. She usually had just enough time to eat breakfast, go through her exercises, and read for an hour before he came and found her. They didn't do anything exciting, just more patrolling and wandering about the kingdom. He brought her back in time for dinner, which they had shared except for the one evening his father had insisted he sup at the royal table. Then, he wandered in and out of her presence in the evenings as she practiced reading, writing, and a bit of experimental sewing.

'Hungry?'

"Sure."

He let her slide off his back and flopped onto his side on the ground. The small rise they were on was shaded by a cluster of young trees and overlooked the plains. Kagome liked picking picturesque places for their lunches.

She shrugged off the rather ugly, but serviceable, backpack she'd found stuffed in Sango's trunk and began pulling out the day's picnic. The cook was more than happy to have Kagome around. Since she'd begun hanging around the prince, she had fallen into the habit of going to the kitchen to pick up their meals. The cook was used to the prince stamping into his domain and swiping anything handy during odd hours of the day and was delighted by the change.

He was also sharper than most of the other human staff. When Kagome had pulled out her notebook a few mornings ago and requested a picnic lunch that could handle traveling in a backpack, he'd winked at her and said it was no problem. He hadn't balked at her ability to write, or wondered aloud, loudly, about how she could stand to be around the prince. Kagome was grateful. Playing simple had its advantages, but it was making her feel itchy to do something shockingly brilliant just to put some of the ninnies she'd encountered back in their place.

Kagome happily munched on an apple and leaned back against the trunk of the tree Inu-Yasha had claimed for his perch. Any moment he would begin to talk. She didn't know why he did, but it was something that she'd come to look forward to every afternoon.

"I don't know why my brother doesn't like me. I mean, I guess it's because I'm a half-breed, but I don't really get that, either. I can kick the asses of every youkai I know. I'm not wimpy or stupid like most humans."

Kagome didn't think to be offended at first. Though she had the body of one, she didn't feel human. But, because she had an image to maintain, she chucked her apple core so it bounced off his foot. He spared her a brief glare before losing himself back in his thoughts.

"And who does he think he's kidding, anyway?" he continued a few minutes later. "He says he despises humans, but the first waif that he runs into he goes and adopts. And not even like a pet! She goes to most court functions _and_ he assigned a tutor to teach her and shit. He treats her better than he does me! And I'm his own blood!"

Kagome shrugged, though she didn't think he was watching for her reactions. He seemed to consider her a sounding board. Maybe because he felt comfortable around her or because he felt the same kindred connection to her as she did for him. Or, maybe it was simply because she was mute. Whatever the reason, she'd learned a lot about him from what he'd said, but mostly from what he didn't say.

He'd lost his mother when he was a toddler. She'd been the promise bride who was supposed to unite the Shihai no Inu kingdom with its western, and human-ruled, neighbor. When she'd died, the alliance had faded back into the uneasy policy of 'ignore for now' that had existed for hundreds of years previously. The death of the queen had also spelled the death of the relationship between the prince and his father. Most of Inu-Yasha's youth had been spent under the hard rule of a youkai tutor. She'd been harsh, prejudiced, and stupid. Kagome silently thanked her for warping the young prince into the emotionally and socially retarded, snarly man he'd become.

And, oh, he was hopeless.

Growing up rejected by family, court, and guardians for trivial and abstract reasons meant he had trouble understanding relationships between himself and others. And, because he wasn't a stupid person, this frustrated him. Consequently, he shut others out to avoid both the rejection and the frustration of not knowing _why_ he was being rejected.

Kagome thought Kaede would have a grand time picking at his brain if she ever had the chance to meet him. Knowing someone like Kaede would probably do him some good. But, since that wasn't going to happen, Kagome contented herself with the knowledge that she could at least be someone he could vent to without inhibition.

She tilted her head back so she could see his leg dangling over the edge of the branch a good ways above her. A moment later, he shifted so that he was staring back down at her.

"And I still don't know why you want to hang around me so much," he added peevishly. She smiled so her eyes crinkled shut and shrugged lightly. Honestly, she couldn't have told him. When she listened to him and mulled over his problems, it wasn't because she was interested in how the information would lead her to the jewel. In fact, except for the mild bouts of depression she couldn't quite shake, she wouldn't have minded if these lazy, carefree days went on endlessly.

"Weirdo girl," he continued to himself as he leapt to the ground beside her. "Come on, let's get going."

'No!' she mouthed with a pout and tugged on his pant leg. The fields reminded her of home in a way that wasn't too painful.

He shook his leg free and scowled at her. "I want to keep following the border down to the coast, and we can't get that done before dusk unless we go now."

Now _there _was a good way to bring all of her fears and anxieties screaming to the surface: a nice trip to the ocean.

'SIT!' she commanded, thrusting her finger at the ground beside her.

His ears flattened and he sat down cross-legged so quickly that he looked surprised with himself. He recovered in a moment, spat out a 'keh,' and resumed looking moodily toward the mountains.

Kagome felt her former smile inch its way back onto her lips. Maybe she could be of more help than just an unreproachful ear. He seemed like he could use a little genial head-butting in his life.

* * *

Inu-Yasha watched the shadows of the trees stretch across the ground and fought the urge to start tapping his fingers. Just how long did the damned girl want to sit here doing nothing, anyway?

She was more trouble than she was worth. He'd started letting her follow him around because he'd felt guilty for the way he'd overreacted a few days ago. He remembered the days when he'd followed his brother around, just like the little human girl Rin did now. Only, his brother had ignored him in public and usually backhanded him in private. The little girl he let follow to her heart's content. And if there was one person he considered an example of what he didn't want to be, it was Sesshoumaru.

He'd meant to gradually discourage Kagome from seeking him out. But, as the days had rolled into each other, as they tended to do for him, he found that he actually didn't mind her presence.

There was something calming about her, and something really damned familiar. That weirded him out, but he could mostly write it off as being because she looked so much like the priestess who'd spared him at the beach. She didn't smell half bad, either. Her scent reminded him of a light, early morning sea breeze after a long night of squalls.

Or something.

He also didn't know why he found it so easy to talk to her about stuff. It wasn't like she ever said anything back. Of course, he usually made sure he was in a tree or on a tall rock or someplace where she couldn't easily use her notebook.

And… she looked at him sometimes. Like when he'd been talking about how the court would bow to his face and then start snickering the moment he walked past. He'd glanced down at her and she'd been looking up at him with the strangest expression. It wasn't pity, because that would have just pissed him off. Sango pitied him.

It was almost like she understood what he was talking about. Like she knew what that kind of two-faced rejection felt like.

She probably wasn't really paying attention and was thinking about something completely different.

Still, he didn't mind talking, and she didn't seem to mind listening. Or pretending to listen, at least. Probably better if she didn't, anyway.


	7. Betrayal

**A/N: **Hi! Um...no excuses. Instead, a rundown of life in vague chronological order: writer's block, school, work, more writer's block, relationship stress, internship, more work, firey death of relationship, graduation, limbo, real job, new boyfriend, writing again. All that in the year and a half since the last update. Awesome. In other news, ITFH won fan fiction of the year in the 2003-2004 RKRC awards, for any of you who read it. Woot!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Inu-Yasha or Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid."

**Without Words:** Betrayal

Sango and Miroku didn't return until the next night.

Kagome had tucked herself comfortably in Inu-Yasha's chair in the library and was slowly soaking in a light adventure story. Her back was wedged into one corner, and her feet dangled over the armrest. The prince was sprawled across the floor beside the chair, head propped up in one hand and gaze unfocused. He'd been unusually genial all evening, except for when she'd accidentally clipped his ear when she'd first swung her legs over the armrest. It had worried her until she'd been too sucked into the book to care.

She'd just finished the second chapter when Inu-Yasha stirred slightly, his ears twitching toward the door.

"They're back," he announced with a half-smothered yawn and returned to staring at nothing.

Kagome had just enough time to puzzle out who "they" were before the door to the library banged open, and Sango stormed into the room with murder written on her face. Then, her eyes snagged on first Kagome, then the prince. She rocked back on her heels and narrowed her gaze at both of them in turn. "What's going on here?"

Miroku nearly bumped into her as he came in, hands held out before him in a placating gesture. "Sango, please…What's this?" His mouth flipped from a placating smile to a suspicious frown.

Kagome grinned at them as she set her book on her stomach and pulled out her notepad. 'Welcome back!' she scrawled quickly in large letters.

"Yes, thank you, Kagome," Sango replied slowly, shifting to the right so Miroku could stand beside her. Kirara shifted her red-eyed stare from each of them in turn and then let out a puzzled trill.

"Took you long enough," Inu-Yasha drawled from the floor and pushed himself into a sitting position. His ears flattened as he narrowly missed a face-full of Kagome's feet. He shot her an annoyed glance and pushed her feet away so they slid off the armrest to dangle above the floor. Kagome made a mock swat at his head with her notepad and adjusted so she was sitting up properly as well.

'What's wrong?' Kagome asked, noting they were still regarding them warily.

"Nothing, I guess," Sango replied and waved her hand to indicate their postures. "You just look so…"

"Friendly?" Miroku supplied brightly, folding his hands into his sleeves and relaxing his posture. "Cozy?"

"Eh?" the prince snapped. "What are you talking about?"

Kagome rolled her eyes and ignored him in favor of writing, 'How was your trip? We looked for you yesterday afternoon. The prince was worried because you were late.'

Sango took the notebook when it was offered and stared bemusedly at her script. "You've improved a lot in the last few days, Kagome," she complimented and passed it to Miroku. "The trip was fine until the last few days. Someone had to perform an exorcism on the village headman's daughter before we could leave the country." She pointedly turned her face away from her companion.

Miroku winced a smile and turned his attention enthusiastically to Kagome's writing. "My, Lady Kagome, I'm impressed." His smile turned patently innocent. "Where did you get such fine writing materials?"

She schooled her face to keep from smiling and jerked at thumb at the prince. He turned his nose up. "Keh, that slate was stupid, and the chalk dust was irritating me, so I found some old stuff in the study."

Kagome thought it diplomatic not to mention that he'd snapped her "stupid" slate like a twig in a fit of righteous temper.

Sango eyed Kagome's carefully blank expression and the prince's scowling face and changed the subject. "Mmm, well, we've already handed over our written report for the king to read. We'll give our oral account at tomorrow morning's meeting."

"So what was going on with the youkai?" Inu-Yasha asked as he stood and folded his hands in his sleeves.

"They're curiously busy," Miroku replied slowly. "They aren't interested in our border. Rather, they seem to be passing through, making trouble on their way toward some other goal. It's not either of our neighbors, but perhaps one of the next countries over."

Sango unhooked her giant boomerang from her shoulder and leaned it against the wall. "In my experience, the only thing that would make rogue youkai move in such large numbers is either fear or power. And from the information we gathered from some of the bordering villages, they don't seem like they're running away."

Miroku nodded. "Something is drawing them."

"Yeah, but the only countries on the western coast are ruled by humans. What would they have that youkai would want?" the prince muttered, an ear twitching in annoyance.

Kagome turned her face from one person to the other, most of the conversation swimming over her head. Kaede hadn't delved too deep into the internal politics of the land races. She knew the land was split roughly in half between youkai and human ruling nations, with a shaky border where the two races lightly and warily intermingled. Kaede kept a close eye on the dry world, which was how she'd discovered the man looking for the jewel, but Kagome had be focusing on the more physical duties of a miko.

The monk shrugged. "That is the mystery. Since we were limited to scouting the western border, we couldn't travel far enough into Sakana or Momo to get a better idea of where they were going. Of course, I doubt the king anticipated our finding any significant trouble."

"It was grunt work," Inu-Yasha dismissed with a snort and stalked toward the door. "I'm going to bed."

Kagome blinked at the sudden departure, but didn't move to follow. When he announced his intentions so clearly, it usually meant he wasn't going to do anything of the kind. More likely he was going to go tramping around the forest, and she didn't fancy being left in a tree this late at night.

"I thought that would get him thinking," Miroku chuckled.

Sango nodded absently and gathered her weapon in one hand and Kirara in the other. "At least we know someone will take us seriously." She smiled at Kagome. "I'm going to turn in. Are you going to stay up?"

Kagome shrugged and got to her feet. In truth, she was beginning to develop a slight headache from reading.

As she followed Sango the short way down the hall to their room, she wondered what the morning would bring. As well as she'd come to know the prince in the past few days, she couldn't begin to predict how he would act now Sango and Miroku had returned. Would he go back to ignoring her, or would he keep up the casual companionship? She felt a twinge in her chest when she realized how strongly she hoped he wouldn't abandon her.

* * *

"Do you want to wait in the room?" Sango asked the next morning as she slipped into her soft, indoor boots. She had proposed they all go for a picnic after the meeting to celebrate her and Miroku's return. Miroku had managed to acquire a few fine bottles of wine from the last border village before they'd been run out by the mob.

Kagome shrugged and rose from her seat in the middle of the floor, indicating with a flick of her hand that she'd rather come with them.

Sango nodded. "There are benches in the hallway outside for you to wait on. Though, if you're going to go into such a busy part of the castle, you should probably change first."

Short trousers, leather slippers, an elbow-sleeved tunic, and a thin sash around her waist had been Kagome's outfit of choice while they'd been gone. The boyish ensemble had been very serviceable for sitting in trees and keeping cool in the afternoon sun. Of course, she'd noticed most women in the palace wore a bit more. She didn't know how they could stand all of the layers. If she didn't think it would shock and alarm the population at large, she would happily flit around in only underpants and a breast-bind. Cloth itched against skin used to the silky caress of water.

The older girl dug through the small, loaned wardrobe Kagome had been given by various members of the maid staff and selected wide, flowing pants, a sleeveless tunic, a long-sleeved robe, and a wide, stiff sash. Kagome wrinkled her nose at the layers and length. Her fingertips would barely peek past the sleeves of the robe, and she knew she would trip over the hem of the pants.

"We'll just leave your hair," Sango mused once she finished cinching and tucking the sash into place. Kagome was sure she'd cracked a rib in the process. "We could braid it with a long ribbon, but we don't really have time."

Kagome smothered a smirk at the small triumph. Human woman in the castle wore their hair coiled and pinned around their head. Only young girls wore it long, and even they had it pulled away from their faces. Of course, most of their hair was silky and straight. Kagome's was soft, but very wavy, thick, and reached the backs of her thighs. When she went out with the prince, she used three ties to keep it in a long tail, but trying to wind it around her head usually ended up with a lot of bent pins and broken hair sticks. Sango had suggested cutting it, but Kagome was reluctant to relinquish the length. The mermaid princesses were known for their long hair.

So, though she was dressed very properly in humble colors of beige and off-white, she still attracted stares as she trailed after Sango and Miroku through the palace. That confused her. She had wandered after the prince in much more audacious attire. But then, she reasoned, she'd been a mute, foreign waif tagging along after the halfling-prince. Perhaps being seen in less infamous company, and with more subdued clothing, made her unruly hair stand out and seem more shocking.

"It shouldn't take too long," Sango assured when they reached the western, side entrance to the main conference hall.

Miroku nodded in agreement. "The king has likely already been debriefed of our report and will probably only have a few minor questions."

She gave them a smile and shooed them in the direction of the door. They shot her nearly identical looks of barely-hidden concern before letting themselves into the room. Kagome heard them being announced by a distant voice before the door clicked shut. Then she was left in the relative silence of the hallway.

The floor, with its plush carpet, would have been a more ideal waiting spot than the hard stone benches, but she figured she didn't need to attract any more attention to herself. Sprawling full-length across the floor would probably raise a few eyebrows.

She'd just settled onto the far corner of the bench closest to the door when a small party of people rounded the corner. She blinked to make sure her eyes were seeing truly, because the group was startlingly improbable.

The figure that first caught the eye was the imposing dog demon who calmly strode at the head. She examined the refined, cold features and wondered if Inu-Yasha possibly had a sister he'd neglected to mention. She almost considered the possibility of a cousin when her gaze fell on the little human girl in tow.

_This is prince Sesshoumaru,_ she realized. The bright-eyed, bubbly girl could only be the orphan, Rin, who Inu-Yasha complained about, because she was a walking symbol of his brother's hypocrisy. The difference between the two was so startling that the contrast couldn't even be considered harmonious. Words like fire and ice, or sun and moon, were faulty because they implied a certain aesthetic symmetry in their opposition. These two were just jarring.

Then, thrown in like a joke, was the toad demon, Jaken. Inu-Yasha had had little to say about him, dismissing him with a rude snort as nothing more than a bumbling lackey.

"May I come in with you, Prince Sesshoumaru?" the girl piped with a sweet smile.

"What?" Jaken squawked, looking like his own honor had been affronted rather than his master's. "Don't be ridiculous, you silly human." He thrust a crooked, green finger at the bench Kagome was sitting on. "You'll wait here, like you've been told."

Rin cast an imploring look up at the stone-faced prince, but he didn't even glance down at her. He was already walking through the door being opened for him into the hall. Jaken let out another croak and scurried after him. The door clicked shut, and again the hallway was left in silence.

The little girl's face drooped briefly in an unhappy smile. Then she spotted Kagome.

"Oh!" she made a bobbing little bow. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you. My name is Rin. I belong to Prince Sesshoumaru, and Jaken looks after me so I don't get into trouble. He says I'm always getting into trouble, but I think he just doesn't know how to lighten up. You don't look like a servant. At least, you wouldn't just be sitting here without getting yelled at if you were. Who do you belong to? Are you one of Prince Inu-Yasha's guards? I heard there was a new human girl living here, but Prince Sesshoumaru doesn't like it when I leave his wing, so I hadn't had a chance to see you for myself. Are you the one they said washed up onto the beach?" She paused long enough to smooth her robes under her as she sat down and then brightly opened her mouth to start again.

Kagome hastily held up a hand, a slightly desperate smile tugging at her lips. She pulled out her notebook and flipped open to a clean page.

'My name is Kagome. I'm staying in Prince Inu-Yasha's wing,' she wrote thoughtfully. She certainly wasn't "his," not in the way Rin belonged to Sesshoumaru, but she certainly didn't fall under any more likely category. Besides, powers or not on land, she was a miko. Miko were property unto none.

Rin took the pad from her and carefully ran her fingertip beneath each word, her small mouth moving silently. Kagome felt the girl might as well have poked her little finger into the bubble of her ego. She was on the same reading level as a seven-year-old.

"Ooh, Prince Inu-Yasha is grumpy, isn't he?" she chuckled. "One time, when I snuck away from Jaken, I got lost on the West side of the castle. Prince Inu-Yasha growled at me the whole time he was taking me back to Prince Sesshoumaru." She leaned in closer and dropped her voice to a whisper. "They don't get along."

Kagome nodded solemnly, fighting back a smile as she imagined Inu-Yasha stomping through the halls with his ears laid back and Rin skipping at his side. Then she wondered if she and he made just as ridiculous a picture and winced.

"Did you really come from the ocean?" Rin went on, bouncing a little on the bench as her voice picked up animatedly. "Jaken says you're probably a sea harpy and you'll try to bewitch everyone in the castle into throwing themselves off the cliffs. He says everyone would just be happy if you did that to Prince Inu-Yasha, but I told him that wasn't a nice thing to say. Then he said I was stupid, so I sat on him and tickled until he took it back." She beamed.

Kagome felt her eyebrows rise up under her bangs. She wondered just how seriously the castle was taking stories like Jaken's, or if it was simply hall chatter to pass the time. Either way, it made her uneasy. Though she supposed Miroku, or any other palace miko-type person, could tell that she didn't have any power. She knew, certainly. It was a continuing ache, overshadowed only when she stood up and was forced instead to try and ignore her feet.

She held out her hand for her notebook and wrote back, 'I was shipwrecked. I'm staying with Prince Inu-Yasha and Sango and Miroku because I don't have anywhere else to go.'

Rin took back the notebook and alternated puzzling out the words with shooting Kagome puzzled frowns.

"This isn't a game," she stated finally. "You can't talk, can you?"

Kagome shrugged and shook her head.

The little girl folded her hands solemnly in her lap. "I couldn't find my voice for a long time. Not until Prince Sesshoumaru found me." She looked up hopefully. "Maybe if you ask very nicely, Prince Inu-Yasha could bring back yours."

The dull ache inside moved up and lodged firmly in her heart. Slowly, she shook her head and placed her hand atop the smaller girl's head. Of course she couldn't explain it was because of Prince Inu-Yasha that she'd given it up.

* * *

Inu-Yasha slumped into his seat and worked on looking as put-upon as possible for having to be there. It wasn't like his father really looked to him for opinions in anything that mattered, so he didn't understand why he should have to be there. Especially when he could feel his brother's eyes pointedly not looking at him even as all of his father's advisors took alternating turns glaring at him.

His father had yet to make his appearance, so the long table remained in an awkward silence while he sulked, Jaken and the other advisors fussed with note-taking materials, Sesshoumaru worked on looking superior, and Sango and Miroku tried to keep their expressions neutral.

Inu-Yasha considered his claws where they rested in his lap and wondered how quickly he'd have to slit his throat to die before his body could regenerate itself. Then, figuring it would give his brother too damn much satisfaction—unless he could find some way to make sure he bled on him, of course—he thought about his newest problem.

The damn girl.

He swore she was a leech in a past incarnation. That or a monkey. A chattering monkey. For not being able to speak, there were times when he could feel her words beating him around the ears. An impatient look, a frustrated gesture; that was all she seemed to need to make herself perfectly clear to him. Not that he heeded her any better than he would have had she been able to scream at him at the top of her lungs.

She was annoying. There were a lot of reasons, as he reminded himself daily, but chief among them was that he actually kind of didn't dislike her hanging around. As for that, he could only reason he had some permanent damage done when he'd been booted from the ship. Or maybe it was because she kind of looked like that miko who'd saved him.

It wasn't because she was restful to be around. Or that it was pretty fun to watch her face screw up and know that, if she could, she _would_ scream at him at the top of her lungs.

He was so engrossed in mentally listing all the reasons why she wasn't pleasant to be around, he was almost surprised when the herald announced his father.

The table rose to greet the king, who waved them all back into their seats and held out the other for his aid to give him the meeting's agenda.

"Good morning, everyone," he greeted as he sat. Regarding the agenda, he waved his hand toward the two humans. "Miroku, Sango, what were your impressions about the border?"

The guards rose from their seats, Sango standing at attention and Miroku calmly folding his arms inside his sleeves. Miroku briefly outlined their observations, Sango elaborating on rogue-youkai behaviors.

"Our neighbors are nervous only that more bands will keep passing through," Miroku concluded. "However, from Sango's knowledge, it seems this problem could quickly escalate if what they're after is, indeed, power."

"At this point, we don't know how close to our borders the problem really lies," Sango picked up. "We also don't know the nature of this power. The rogue-youkai could kill each other off trying to obtain it, or they could all become stronger and present a threat to anyone near. The power could also be something that tempts rivaling kingdoms who wish to expand their borders."

Inu-Yasha approved of her phrasing. An intelligent person could read the far-reaching implications behind her conjectures, but she didn't come off sounding overly excited, which could call her objectivity into question.

The royal advisors glanced between themselves, and disbelieving murmurs began to rumble around the table. Inu-Yasha gave in to the urge to roll his eyes. Typical.

The king raised a finger from the table and achieved complete silence. "I understand your concern. However, with the ball coming up, I don't really have any spare soldiers to deploy for further investigation."

Inu-Yasha balled his fist in his lap but kept his face as impassive as Sango and Miroku's. Humans were good enough to marry and get despised half-breeds on, but not good enough to listen to when they came with legitimately disturbing news. This large of a rouge-youkai uprising hadn't been seen in centuries, and the last time had seen over half the youkai nations embroiled in war to protect their people from being massacred and the land from being razed.

"Let's see how the ball turns out," he went on. "There will be a few ambassadors from the human countries visiting. We'll see what the atmosphere is like and judge from there what our next action should be." He turned to his aid, a snub-nosed youkai of at least 500 years from a minor family, and gave a few additional notes on who should be sent to mingle in the crowds during the festivities.

Inu-Yasha kept an ear open as his father murmured to his secretary and bit back a growl when the king named a young, inexperienced aide to handle the Momo ambassadors.

If the king had one weakness, it was his wife's death and the failed alliance between their two kingdoms. Though, admittedly, princess Izayoi had not been a princess of Momo, only the queen's half-sister. Still, she had been as beloved by the people as her sister, and her death had come as a grievous shock to the neighboring country. And while Inu-Yasha could understand wanting to put as much distance between himself and an old heartache as possible, it didn't make sense when the country being ignored was a buffer between Shihai no Inu and a potentially serious threat.

Of course, pointing this out to the king wouldn't do much good when he was sure to be backed up by every last advisor _and_ Sesshoumaru that Momo was a, "disaster best left forgotten." Sometimes he wished he could give his royal obligations a swift kick and retreat to the brutal simplicity of the forests. Of course, without the protection of walls, he'd have to worry what trouble Kagome could be getting herself into at every moment.

He irritably shook his head and shifted his attention to his "guards."

They were giving their bows and being excused from the rest of the meeting. Inu-Yasha rose to get the hell out as well, when his father's voice froze him halfway out of the chair.

"It has been brought to my attention that we have a new guest residing in Prince Inu-Yasha's wing of the palace."

His ears twitched with the effort to keep from lying back defensively. Slowly, he slumped back into his chair and nodded. When his father's face remained patiently expectant, he sighed and gave up the details.

"Her name is Kagome. She was shipwrecked and washed up onto one of our private beaches. For reasons the doctor was unable to determine, other than trauma, she lost the use of her voice and has trouble walking. Miroku and I agree she is probably from a well-to-do merchant family from one of the western kingdoms. She has communicated that her entire family was lost in the storm and remains a guest in my wing until a permanent arrangement can be found for her."

He finished with a polite "as his majesty wishes" at the end of the short speech. If nothing else, his tutors had instilled the proper court etiquette required of a prince. Not that he usually bothered to observe it.

His father nodded, and Sesshoumaru opened his mouth.

"I'll leave the matter in your hands. At least now you and your brother are even in number of human foundlings," the king observed with a barely-concealed smirk.

Sesshoumaru closed his mouth again with an audible click.

Inu-Yasha looked at his brother with wide, innocent eyes. His father could be a bastard, but he was one of the few people who knew how to cut the elder prince off at the knees.

His glee at his brother's discomfort lasted exactly six seconds. Then his father came to the next item on the agenda.

"Oh, and Inu-Yasha, what sort of entertainment have you arranged for the guests at the ball? I'd like at least some idea of what I'm getting into before the night of the performance."

He knew he'd been purposefully ignoring something. This, of course, was all the girl's fault. She was distracting.

"I've got a couple of things I'm looking into at the moment," he shrugged. "I'll have someone inform your aide when I've decided which to pick." Lies. Sesshoumaru knew it, if he judged correctly by Jaken's stifled snickers. Luckily, his father just nodded and moved on to more of the logistics concerning the ball.

* * *

'I need your help.' Kagome sidled over to Sango's side of the blanket, careful to keep the page turned away from Miroku. The elder girl nodded solemnly and gestured for her to continue.

'I've heard the prince is supposed to provide an entertainment for the ball.'

Another encouraging nod. Miroku was too engrossed with keeping his share of the food from Kirara's sneaky paws to notice anything out of the ordinary about the girls' conversation.

'I can dance.'

Sango's eyebrows rose fractionally in surprise, then furrowed in confusion. Kagome hurried on, anticipating the question.

'I need help putting together the costume and arranging to practice with the orchestra. I want to keep it a secret from the prince.'

Sango's lips twitched up, and she took the pencil from Kagome's hand.

'Sounds like fun. Whatever you need.'

"Am I not welcome in this conversation?" Miroku queried.

"No," Sango said firmly and Kagome mouthed.

He smiled tightly and opened his mouth to make some objection when Kagome spotted Inu-Yasha trudging up the hill to join them under the shade of their chosen picnic tree. She waved to him with her left hand while hurriedly scribbling through her conversation with the right. She didn't notice the speculative look Sango and Miroku shared as her attention zeroed in on the prince.

She gestured toward the generous supply of breads, meats, fruits, and cheeses the cook had packed into their basket.

"Not now. I'm gonna go patrol."

Finished with her light meal already, Kagome stood and brushed the crumbs from the front of her slacks. Now that she knew she had Sango's support in her scheme, a weight of uncertainty had lifted from her. With the guard's help, she would have better access to the kinds of cloth she would need to pull off the dance. In the meantime, she was ready to feel the wind through her hair.

"What do you want?" Inu-Yasha snorted as she approached him. She startled to a halt, so engrossed in her thoughts that she hadn't realized he hadn't formally invited her. Not that he'd ever asked her opinion in the matter before.

She gestured to herself and waved at the forest behind them. Doubt began to nibble at her insides. His posture was stiff and unwelcoming. He hadn't stood like that around her for days.

"What makes you think I want you along?" he scoffed and brushed past her.

The realization that her fears last night hadn't been so farfetched came crashing down on her head, and it took her a moment to remember to respond.

"I'll be gone for a while," he was telling his stiff-faced guards, "so don't come bumbling after me. And make sure she doesn't make trouble."

Sango glanced at her worriedly, and Kagome realized her confused heartache must be clearly written on her face.

One agonizing step forward brought her close enough to gently tug on a lock of Inu-Yasha's hair. He shook it from her grasp before rounding on her angrily.

"What?" he demanded. "You've got your nursemaids back, so you can quit following me around everywhere." He huffed and folded his arms, refusing to meet her gaze. "You're worse than Rin. At least she listens when Sesshoumaru tells her to stay put."

"My Lord," Miroku cautioned, he and Sango still sitting tensely on the blanket. Kirara mewed worriedly, glancing between all parties. Kagome could see their cautious confusion. Even though he was their prince, they didn't know whose side to take.

It took her a few tries, but she finally scrawled out, 'I thought we had become friends.'

He didn't turn his face toward her, simply glanced at the paper out of the corner of his eye. "When did I say that?"

The irony of the statement caused a massive shift in the tide of her emotions. Suddenly, instead of the slow creep of depression she felt a crash of anger engulf her. Aside from his long verbal purges, to which she was an impassive listener, most of their communication over the last week hadn't needed speech. Except for the occasional sarcastic comment, they had mostly spoken with emphatic gestures and facial expressions.

It didn't hurt that he seemed to be able to pick up on the even the small nuances of her emotions. Like now. His ears began to slowly twist back as her face darkened in the rage of betrayal. Forget every sympathetic feeling she'd had for him and every moment of imagined kinship.

'_Jerk_!' she screamed at him and stomped with all her might on his right foot. Not a smart decision she realized almost instantly as pain shot up her leg, leaving it numb. Her only satisfaction was that he yelped and started shaking the offended foot in the air and glaring at her.

Tears pricked her eyes from too many sources of pain for her to identify. Not wanting to give him the satisfaction of breaking down in front of him, she hurled her notebook at his chest as a parting gesture and began hobbling back toward the castle.

"I think you may wish to reconsider that statement," she heard Miroku advise the prince quietly. In another moment Sango had caught up to her and hitched an arm around her waist to relieve most of the weight from her feet.

"He doesn't mean it," she assured quietly, giving Kagome's opposite shoulder a squeeze.

Kagome simply gritted her teeth and shook her head.


End file.
